Rust and Bone

Jacques Audiard directs this French relationship drama detailing the bond that develops between two people, both profoundly damaged in different ways.

The film starts by telling two parallel stories: one of Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), a homeless father struggling to care for his five-year-old son, and the other of Stephanie (Marion Cotillard), a woman who loses her legs in an accident while working as a trainer of killer whales.

Both strong, idiosyncratic characters who are used to defining the parameters of their personal relationships, their union forces them out of the emotional safety zones they have each developed for the purposes of self-protection.