Disturbing yet enthralling

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

A film that doesn't quite tick the boxes, but nonetheless worth a watch. The son (Kid) develops as the central character, despite the initial focus on his farther. Kid's character is played well - without unnecessary dialogue (which is generally quite sparse). Much is implied rather than stated, which makes this film interesting if you have the patience - and in that sense it is more typically French: relationships count more than action. Despite being a French production most of the dialogue is in English - so don't be put off if you don't like subtitles. There is no heavy handed treatment of "muslims" and, actually, the film would have worked as well without the daughter adopting Islam and the various Middle East threads that developed because of this.A couple of weak areas I didn't like - the mother is left on the fringes, which doesn't feel appropriate given the setting. And the father's death seems illogical and simply a device to allow the son to become central - a bit of a heavy handed way to achieve this that didn't fit with the flow of the film.

This film starts in 1994 when we meet father and husband Alain Deland who is a lover of all things American – especially both their kinds of music – Country and Western. His family seem more than happy to participate in the group outings too and from an outsiders perspective they are a perfect nuclear family. Then on a day when they are having a festival his daughter goes missing.What at first seems to be a case of abduction, or indeed worse, take on a different hue when she decides to contact them. That is when the story takes a massive U turn and nothing is as it should be. This is a remake of 'The Searchers' which is one of the best westerns ever made and this take – though original – is far removed from the sheer timeless beauty of the original John Ford classicNow this starts off fairly light hearted at the beginning but it soon gets very dark very quickly – which is like the original. That is where the similarities end. It does have a bristling, brooding quality that makes it very compelling. It is a hard watch in places and that is in part due to the energy that Francois Damiens brings as the grieving father. This is a film that deals with difficult themes in a realistic way and is both well aced, directed, written and is for fans of Gallic cinema.

I saw this film with no knowledge of it beforehand, and it was a great surprise. The film's look and feel is beautiful, reminding me of Rust and Bone in tone and feel. The score and soundtrack also suitably served the film, reminding me of the score for 'Seven' in places, the ominous strings swell and suggest the dread and uncertainty that the family are going through as their lives unravel. And then there's the subject matter, which in this day and age is very hard to tackle especially in the current climate. This is a thoughtful and beautiful film that touches on a very complex issue and is expertly paced. A real treat.

What makes young people from France or Belgium abandon everything, including their family, convert to Islam and travel to a strange country to lead a life filled with religion and old-fashioned values? It's a very urgent question, now that several western-born boys and even girls have decided to become jihadi's and fight in Syria.The French film 'Lew Cowboys' is about such a girl. She doesn't travel to Syria, neither does she engage in violence, but she disappears suddenly with her Muslim boyfriend, leaving her father, mother and brother behind in fear and despair.Her father decides to devote his life to the search for his daughter. For several years, he tries to follow every trace that can lead him to his daughter Kelly. Het becomes so obsessed that he risks his job, his marriage and eventually his life in order to find his daughter. Later on, the same goes for Kelly's brother.The desperate search leads father and son from one shady informer to another. They follow traces in France, Belgium and Pakistan. The authorities soon give up the quest for the disappeared teenager, but thanks to their tenacity and some luck, the father and brother have enough clues to continue the search.The quest is filmed in a neutral style, not providing a moral judgment of the girl's behaviour, but concentrating instead on the father's despair and the brother's obsession. The story is spread out over several decades, with the terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid and London providing some indication of the time frame in which several scenes take place. The film's bottom line is a bleak one: when you spend your life searching for something, finding it in the end can be a bitter disappointment.