After the death of his mother, Félix (Sami Bouajila), a carefree gay Arab man, loses his job as a ferry worker in the north of France. He discovers a box of letters from his father, who deserted his mother before he was born and decides to find him. Leaving Dieppe, and promising to meet his lover Daniel (Perre-Loup Rajot) five days later in Marseille, Félix takes to the road. He decides to hitchhike across France, avoiding all major cities en route. Carrying with him only a small bag, his HIV medication and a rainbow kite, he meets an assortment of interesting, unsusual characters along the way: a teenager who Félix teaches to draw; a lone old woman who shelters him in her house; a young man with whom he has a brief sexual encounter; a mother of three; and a middle aged fisherman. As he calls each of these characters "brother", "cousin", and "grandmother", he constructs a family and new understandings of life through this odyssey. There is an unnecessary subplot about a witnessed murder, but it has a moving conclusion. Bouajili carries the film very well, switching from comedic moments to Félix's search for himself. There is one scene where he and a man emerge naked from the bushes, but much of the film is about straight people. Félix's humor and sunny disposition light up the movie, no matter whether he actually meets his real father at the end of the story. This beautiful "road movie" adventure seduces the viewer, submerging us in the French countryside. Directed and written by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, the English title is "The Adventures of Felix".
