Junkyard Dog

There are sometimes amazing cinematic surprises, films that leave us overwhelmed even though we were not expecting as much. This is the case for “Scrapyard Dog” which I had the opportunity to watch thanks to the Telerama Festival and the rebroadcast of their 2023 favorites in cinemas. This first feature film by Jean-Baptiste Durand was touchingly innocent, with clumsy characters, complex through their simplicity. If the synopsis lets us predict a story of a jealous character towards his best friend who just begins a romantic relationship for the first time in his life, the plot is actually deeper than that. Indeed, the director gives us the leisure to study how everyone tries to express themselves and fight to keep living in a small village hidden from everything. Between moving passages against a piano background ("The Tempest" by Beethoven) and sensitivity hidden behind the customs of suburbanites, this movie has definitely had an impact on me. Raphaël Quenard's playing, remarkable among all, features a repartee that can only make you smile, and literary references that surprise.  Young adults hidden in a child's body, a modesty overflowing with feelings, that's what I would remember from this beautiful film, now included in my favorites released in 2023.