Lambert Wilson driving a tractor in an extravagant road movie

Emilie Deleuze tells the story of a city dweller’s confrontation with the rural world in an offbeat comedy.

Emilie Deleuze signs a new feature film in which she stars Lambert Wilson against the odds in the role of a city dweller launched into an incredible rural adventure. 5 hectares hits theaters on December 27, 2023.

Franck (Lambert Wilson), a researcher in a laboratory, has just bought a house in the countryside with his wife Léo (Marina Hands, from the Comédie-Française), a flight attendant. They are delighted to take advantage of the large plot of land surrounding their new home, but the neighbor, a local farmer, intends to continue grazing his cows in Franck’s field. The law stipulates that land belongs to the person who maintains it, Franck does not intend to let Michel appropriate his property. Ready for anything, he sets out to find a tractor with the idea of ​​maintaining his 5 hectares of land himself…

Initiatory journey behind the wheel of a tractor

As she had already done in her first feature film, Makeover (1999), director Emilie Deleuze addresses in this new film the question of the confrontation between people from the city and those from the countryside. Franck arrives on conquered territory, with all the arrogance of a city dweller, while his wife tries to coax (awkwardly) the locals.

In this campaign, we meet characters like Michel (Laurent Poitrenaux), a well-established local farmer, clinging to his animals and his land, but also more marginal characters, like Paul (Lionel Dray), son of a peasant who is a bit lost, a little depressed, who tried to convert the farm into an equestrian center.

Through the war between Franck and Michel, two worlds deaf to each other clash, each locked in their convictions. But Franck’s adventure at the wheel of his old tractor, during which he learns to better understand the reality of farmers, will perhaps help him break the ice with his neighbor.

The constraints of Brussels, the difficulties in finding a companion, the depression… The reality of the peasant world is sketched with subtlety, in a staging which favors the zany and the absurd, rather than the register of drama, usually reserved for this thematic.

This whimsical and offbeat comedy, a little slow at the start, ends up carrying us away thanks to the performance of an unsuitable Lambert Wilson. Permanently on screen, the actor succeeds in giving flesh to a tenuous and non-conformist scenario.

The sheet

Gender : Comedy
Director: Emilie Deleuze
Actors: Lambert Wilson, Marina Hands, Laurent Poitrenaux
Country : France
Duration : 1h 34min
Exit : December 27, 2023
Distributer : Paname Distribution
Synopsis : What leads an established man to jeopardize his comfort, his career and his relationship? The passion, all the more burning because it is late, for five hectares of Limousin land. But the land is earned, especially when you come from the city. Here is Franck rushed into the quest for the Grail. He needs a tractor.