After struggling to find a job and losing her apartment, Sandrine reluctantly returns to her mother’s home in Roubaix, France, where under the guidance of her uncle, she enters into the world of illegal dog trafficking.
When Sandrine (Mojave’s Louise Bourgoin) arrives at her mother’s home after being evicted from her apartment, she hides her belongings in the backyard shed, embarrassed by her misfortunes. She enters a financially struggling home not only occupied by her mother, but her sister, brother-in-law, and niece. Tensions arise among the family members over money and the current state of the job market. Sandrine’s aloofness during job interviews reveals her immaturity and hinders her chance of employment. Out of sympathy to his sister, Uncle Henri (Jean-Hugues Anglade) agrees to employ Sandrine to clean out his dog kennels and handle canine deliveries. Winner of the Palm Dog Manitarian award and screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, Laurent Larivière’s directorial debut I Am a Soldier exposes the dearth of opportunities for a working-class female in the current economic state of France.
DIRECTOR: Laurent Larivière CAST: Louise Bourgoin, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Anne Benoît, Laurent Capelluto LANGUAGE: French COUNTRY: France YEAR: 2015 LENGTH: 97 min