Terre battue

With quite a simple story, Stéphane Demoustier tells us a fable of our world and its competitive side. To be clear, this is not a sport movie but a social movie - in the same vein as North of France / Belgian directors, the Dardenne brothers as head figures of this movement - taking place partly in the sport universe. We follow a father - who quits his job, refusing a demotion, and its son, discovering the competitive tennis world at 11 years, and their relationship. They both struggle to find their way, and have to ask themselves up to where they are ready to win, to succeed. Success becomes a way to exist in front of the others, so much that it comes above everything else. But are every mean right to achieve your objectives ? Building a project with his former company, liying, cheating... All these are approached in a way or another. It also adresses how can be handled failure. Without preaching - nor trying to give its own answers, the director shows us the character's choices, and the impact these choices have.

We are also mainly shown a man's world, the mother and the first trainer being only support characters. Clearly, Stéphane Demoustier wants to show that competition is masculine - which is clearly a shortcut in my opinion.

Acting is good and I guess the Demoustier family did some cinema learning together, with actress Anaïs being Stéphane's sister. It appears as well their father was a commercial manager and there may be some autobiographical pieces in Olivier Gourmet's character, which is quite well developped.