Les cowboys

What makes young people from France or Belgium abandon everything, including their family, convert to Islam and travel to a strange country to lead a life filled with religion and old-fashioned values? It's a very urgent question, now that several western-born boys and even girls have decided to become jihadi's and fight in Syria.

The French film 'Lew Cowboys' is about such a girl. She doesn't travel to Syria, neither does she engage in violence, but she disappears suddenly with her Muslim boyfriend, leaving her father, mother and brother behind in fear and despair.

Her father decides to devote his life to the search for his daughter. For several years, he tries to follow every trace that can lead him to his daughter Kelly. Het becomes so obsessed that he risks his job, his marriage and eventually his life in order to find his daughter. Later on, the same goes for Kelly's brother.

The desperate search leads father and son from one shady informer to another. They follow traces in France, Belgium and Pakistan. The authorities soon give up the quest for the disappeared teenager, but thanks to their tenacity and some luck, the father and brother have enough clues to continue the search.

The quest is filmed in a neutral style, not providing a moral judgment of the girl's behaviour, but concentrating instead on the father's despair and the brother's obsession. The story is spread out over several decades, with the terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid and London providing some indication of the time frame in which several scenes take place. The film's bottom line is a bleak one: when you spend your life searching for something, finding it in the end can be a bitter disappointment.

This film starts in 1994 when we meet father and husband Alain Deland who is a lover of all things American – especially both their kinds of music – Country and Western. His family seem more than happy to participate in the group outings too and from an outsiders perspective they are a perfect nuclear family. Then on a day when they are having a festival his daughter goes missing.

What at first seems to be a case of abduction, or indeed worse, take on a different hue when she decides to contact them. That is when the story takes a massive U turn and nothing is as it should be. This is a remake of 'The Searchers' which is one of the best westerns ever made and this take – though original – is far removed from the sheer timeless beauty of the original John Ford classic

Now this starts off fairly light hearted at the beginning but it soon gets very dark very quickly – which is like the original. That is where the similarities end. It does have a bristling, brooding quality that makes it very compelling. It is a hard watch in places and that is in part due to the energy that Francois Damiens brings as the grieving father. This is a film that deals with difficult themes in a realistic way and is both well aced, directed, written and is for fans of Gallic cinema.

For many reasons, it is the film of the last scenes. Because it represents more vehicle for different states of soul, emotions, questions, a spoon of tension than a story itself. A man, his son and a mission who seems totaly vain. Death, pain, murder, a young woman and her killed husband, a shop and the answer desired so intense.

A film reminding the fine art of Finnegan Oldfield. And a sort of use of light who seems transforming the time in clay.

The relentless search. A movie about obsession and the meaning of one man's life. A young boy inherits his father's obsession and therefore the meaning to his life.

But when he actually achieves his "life goal" he realises that he has a new path to follow and that his obsession no longer has meaning. A fascinating study of how a life can be ruined by obsession but that even when absorbed, consumed completely, life can still steer you in another direction.

A powerful little movie. A powerful metaphor.

For whatever reason American Westerns have always played well in France, from Alan Ladd, John Wayne, Kirk Douglass, through to Randolph Scott & Audie Murphy. Just as films about the American Native Indians did (and still do) in Germany. I knew very little about this movie before watching and glad that was the case. It wasn't until reading about it later I noticed it being touted as a modern 'remake' of Ford's "The Searchers". I saw no connection (other than a mild story thread) and feel that 'remake' is sort of a long bow to draw. It is however, a topical examination of the present times - with observations on the surge of Muslim immigration across the globe - here, focusing mostly on a provincial village in France.

While a local family attend a festival for American country music, their teenage daughter goes missing. Seems she's run off with a young Muslim to seek a new life. Dad is determined to bring her back no matter what the cost and, it's going to be high. His search covers several grotty situations in Paris then heads overseas. It's at this time the movie changes gear with an unexpected, very well staged car accident that has a life-altering impact on both the family of the daughter and the boy she ran away with. What follows is an epic trek into the Middle East and back, with equally unexpected results.

This is modern movie-making at its most intriguing with first-class performances and superb cinematography. Why something this well made has been overlooked mystifies me. Trailers I have seen for this movie would not convince me to see it - they all look as if aimed at a 12 year olds mentality. The accomplished screenwriter, and for this work also director (first feature) Thomas Bidegain creates a compelling study - complete with his own dabbling in the above-average music score - which is mostly composed by Raphael Haroche, ably assisted by co-composer and orchestrator Moritz Reich. There's much to enjoy in this involving drama even to the point of being unsure if dad's interest in his daughter may be a little more intense than it should be (he certainly is an over-intense sort of fellow) or simply the love of a caring parent. It's a story recommended for thinking audiences - that holds a good pace, as it spans a couple of decades while never outstaying it's welcome.