The Apprentice

"Don't exploit the land, cultivate it". 

After graduating from the prestigious La Fémis school in Paris, Samuel Collardey returned to his native Haut-Doubs region in eastern France to film his first feature-length film about the pastures, rural life, and people we seldom see on the silver screen. A documentary inspired by fiction in its staging, The Apprentice is more than a film about the transmission of knowledge from master to pupil; it's a film about the land. 

Collardey brings together Mathieu, an apprentice at a training center, and Paul, a small organic farm manager. The apprentice reminds us that, at 15, you're at a loss when it comes to choosing a career. Mathieu, on the other hand, chose his career path by default: he doesn't really like his job or the animals on the farm, he's a young man who wants to have fun with his friends and sometimes pick up girls - in short, he's caught up in the hustle and bustle of adolescence. But when his family life catches up with him, the director captures a Mathieu who suffers in silence. As the seasons go by, tongues are loosened and his master, with his exemplary empathy, becomes a friend, an ear, who in turn confides in him: a farmer in search of the son he lost, Mathieu in search of a father he never had. 

Collardey has created a work that is both simple and complex. He speaks to us of resilience, dreams, and cultural capital (Bourdieu). A moving tale of apprenticeship, over the course of a school year Mathieu learns almost a trade, but above all, he learns the school of life: sharing his story, finding himself, and, most importantly, feeling loved and respected. The Apprentice is not just an organic, local film, it's a human and profoundly universal one. It speaks to us of hope and our beautiful youth, which we must cherish.
 

Bruno Boëz
Producer, critic and programmer