This "micro-budget" film about "artisanal cheese making" in rural France could "charm anyone, even the most die-hard cheese hater", said Larushka Ivan-Zadeh in The Times. Set in a "hardscrabble farming community" in the Jura Mountains, it tells the story of 18-year-old Totone (Clément Favreau), whose carefree adolescence is brought to an abrupt close when his father dies, leaving him "penniless and responsible for his seven-year-old sister".
Despite "a total lack of expertise", he decides to enter a Comté-making contest in order to win the €30,000 prize. What follows is a story "immersed in rural, working-class culture" that is "vérité and honest without being bleak", and which avoids generic conventions while still giving us "a feel good ending that fully satisfies".
First-time director Louise Courvoisier elicits some "brilliant performances" from her non-professional cast, said Cath Clarke in The Guardian. Favreau ("a poultry farmer in real life") is "amazingly subtle" as the plucky Totone, while Maïwene Barthelemy is equally "terrific" as Marie-Lise, a worldlier teenage dairy farmer with whom he falls in love.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Courvoisier grew up in the Jura, and she takes care to depict local life authentically, said Alex Hopkins-McQuillan in Little White Lies. We see "the birth of a calf play out in real time" and some impressively "detailed scenes" showing the making of Comté – "a maturing process which offers a neat parallel to our protagonist's own development". The film is "a testament to resilience in the face of hardship", and though it has its share of darkness, it is shot through "with compassion and humour".
-
Quiz of The Week: 30 August – 5 SeptemberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
The week's best photosIn Pictures A quick escape, an underground classroom, and more
-
The Week Unwrapped: What does Bake Off say about Channel 4?Podcast Plus, why are Scottish drug deaths so stubbornly high? And are women in their 30s too anxious about their eggs?
-
6 blooming homes for gardenersFeature Featuring a greenhouse in Illinois and 13 raised garden beds in New Mexico
-
The Great Art Fraud: a 'riveting' tale of a disgraced art dealerThe Week Recommends BBC2 documentary explores extraordinary story of 'class-A grifter' charged with fraud
-
The Roses: Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch star in black comedy rebootThe Week Recommends 'Acidly enjoyable' remake of the 1980s classic features a warring couple and toxic love
-
Film reviews: The Roses, Splitsville, and TwinlessFeature A happy union devolves into domestic warfare, a couple's open marriage reaps chaos, and an unlikely friendship takes surprising turns
-
Music reviews: Laufey, Deftones, and Earl SweatshirtFeature "A Matter of Time," "Private Music," and "Live Laugh Love"
-
Woof! Britain's love affair with dogsThe Explainer The UK's canine population is booming. What does that mean for man's best friend?
-
Millet: Life on the Land – an 'absorbing' exhibitionThe Week Recommends Free exhibition at the National Gallery showcases the French artist's moving paintings of rural life
-
Thomasina Miers picks her favourite booksThe Week Recommends The food writer shares works by Arundhati Roy, Claire Keegan and Charles Dickens
