I don't agree with the precedent user : it's an accessible movie ,even for a foreign audience ; the rural drama has always been part of the French cinema s , in the forties("goupi mains rouges" "la ferme du pendu " "la ferme des sept péchés"),then in the seventies ( " la veuve couderc" "l'affaire Dominici " " la horse" ), and even in the contemporary cinema ("revenir" "le vent tourne" "ce qui nous lie" )
"Peaux de Vaches " belong to that tradition ;its subject is as old as the hills : the man who comes back to his native farm ,after spending time in Australia, Canada ,or simply from in town or....in jail.
Roland has just been released from jail where he spent 10 years;he's responsible for setting his young brother's farm on fire which claimed a man's life.When he comes back to his native place ,he's welcomed with open arms by his brother ,but now,he's married and a little girl 's father: his wife don't view this unexpected return (she did not even know the existence of this sibling)favorably .
The wife cannot relate to their memories of the good old time (was it so good ,after all?) and sometimes feels like an intruder in her own house . Besides ,her daughter and her new uncle get on so well she finds it hard to stand the situation.And their intimate life came to a halt since the brother-in-law came back.
In the village ,the victim of the fire's daughter has taken her life and rumor has it that the good brother 's and the vet's business isn't quite above board and more, that the prodigal son is perhaps not the black sheep of the family.
Well acted by Jean -François Stevenin ,his own daughter Salomée as his niece ,Jacques Spiesser,cast against type as the farmer and the always reliable Sandrine
Bonnaire as the wife ;it sustains interest throughout though the ending is not really convincing .
It does not really renew the rural melodrama, but the actors make it a winner.
