Strayed

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Strayed ★★★ Les Egares 2003

Set in the chaotic summer of 1940, when the Germans invaded France. Film follows the flight of recently widowed schoolteacher Odile (Beart) and her children, 13-year-old Philippe (Leprince-Ringuet) and 7-year-old Cathy (Meyer), out of Paris. Part of a stream of refugees heading south, the family is forced into the countryside when German planes strafe the roads; there they meet 17-year-old Yvan (Ulliel), who's illiterate but skilled at survival. Stumbling across an abandoned villa, the foursome set aside their uncertainties to manage a precarious semblance of family life as the sexual tension between Odile and Yvan grows. Since Techine specializes in character studies, this is a story about conflict and desire, civilization versus savagery. Based on the 1983 novel, “The Boy With Grey Eyes,” by Gilles Perrault; French with subtitles. 95m/C VHS, DVD . FR Emmanuelle Beart, Samuel Labarthe, Gaspard Ulliel, Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet, Clemence Meyer, Jean Fornerod; D: Andre Techine; W: Andre Techine, Gilles Taurand; C: Agnes Godard; M: Philippe Sarde.