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Review

In their very unusual debut feature, Jeanne and the Perfect Guy, directing/writing team Jacques Martineau and Olivier Ducastel demonstrated a distinctive mix of fairy tale and harsh reality. With this, their second film, they've stripped away the songs but retained a magical, unflinching flair that results in an extremely entertaining and sensual gay road movie. Felix (Bouajila) is a gentle, carefree French-Arab living in Normandy with his lover, who, after finding himself suddenly unemployed, decides to head south to Marseilles in search of his biological father, whom he's never met. Bidding his boyfriend adieu, Felix hits the road hitch-hiking where he meets a variety of strangers who become his new, imagined family. There's young, frisky, and inexperienced "little brother," (who lusts after him) hunky and liberated "cousin," (with whom he has some hot sex in the fields), harried "sister" with a brood of kids, and wise old "grandmother". By the time Felix reaches his destination, who will end up being his father? And does it really matter? At the film's end Felix reunites with his lover in the sweet, gentle, sensuous and romantic film.
Besides its air of whimsy and humor, The Adventures of Felix injects serious doses of realities like racism, crime and loneliness. For self-described, long-time "hysterical activists" and real-life lovers Martineau and Ducastel, that was part of the game plan. "The film is an action for the gay community," Martineau proudly exclaimed at Berlin's Teddy Award ceremony in 2000, where Felix won a special jury award. (French with English subtitles)

 -- Lawrence Ferber