Icarus Films Tabs Oct. 23 For The Domestic DVD Debut Of Director Philippe Lioret’s A Kid

Ssshhhhh … you may come, but you must keep quiet about who you are.   

This deceit (among others) is at the heart of the Distrib Films production of director Philippe Lioret’s A Kid (aka: Le fils de Jean), which will be making its domestic DVD debut on Oct. 23 courtesy of Icarus Films.

Matthieu Capelier, a thirty-something living in Paris, gets a mysterious phone call that his father has died.   Now this comes as quite the surprise to Matthieu, played by Pierre Deladonchamps — nominated for a César Awards in the Best Actor category for his performance here (this was his second Best Actor nomination … he won in 2013 for Stranger by the Lake) — who was told by his deceased mother that he was the result of a “one night stand” and she went to her grave without revealing anything more than that.

The voice on the other end of the line is a fellow by the name of Pierre (Gabriel Arcand), who lives in Montreal, was Matthieu’s father’s best friend … and surprise, surprise, you have two half-brothers.   

That is a lot to take in, especially for a man who was married, fathered a son and is now divorced — although he remains on his good terms with his ex-wife, Carine (Romane Portail).   He’s basically adrift, a part-time father, in a job that offers him nothing and now this!

You have a choice at this point, thank Pierre for the unwanted news and hang up the phone (after all, mom said it was a one-night stand), or get on a plane and fly to Montreal and meet your brothers.   Matthieu chooses the latter, but his reception at the airport by Pierre is not all that warm and fuzzy … it’s more like “why are you here … and when are you leaving?”

Here’s where Lioret’s film gets tricky.   Matthieu’s father drowned in a lake some fifty miles north of Montreal (filmed in and around Saint-Zénon, Quebec) and his body has yet to be recovered and the sons, Samuel (Patrick Hivon) and Benjamin (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), have decided to continue the search, with Pierre’s help.  Pierre gives Matthieu a choice, come, but remain quiet about your identity, or go home.

He becomes an observer to the relationship that his brothers have, with Pierre’s wife (Marie-Thérèse Fortin) and daughter (Catherine de Léan) filling in the gaps for Matthieu (and us) about his father.   Oh what a tangled web we weave as secrets, deceptions and fatherhood all combine for a very interesting trip for a bewildered Frenchman from Paris to a far off place called Montreal. 

A Kid is presented in French with English subtitles.