Georges has Down syndrome, living at a mental-institution, Harry is a busy businessman, giving lectures for young aspiring salesmen. He is successful in his business life, but his social life is a disaster since his wife left him and took their two children with her. This weekend his children came by train to meet him, but Harry, working as always, forgot to pick them up. Neither his wife or his children want to see him again and he is driving around on the country roads, anguished and angry. He almost runs over Georges, on the run from the institution since everybody else went home with their parents except him, whose mother is dead. Harry tries to get rid of Georges but he won’t leave his new friend. Eventually a special friendship forms between the two of them, a friendship which makes Harry a drifferent person.” – imdb.com
Both the main actors, Daniel Auteuil (Harry) and Pascal Duquenne (George) won The Best Actor Award in Cannes Film Festival 1996. You’ll eventually learn to love George as Harry did while watching the movie. As the director of the film Jaco van Dormael said,
I wanted to film the clash of two worlds, the world considered ‘normal’ and the one that isn’t.To see what the latter has that we don’t have.
To film the beauty in the apparently unpleasant.
To film the grace in the apparently ordinary.
To show another way of comprehending the world and life, another awareness of the universe, in its rich diversity, that reveals to us our capacity for love.
He did all those wonderfully!
