I Stand Alone

A horse butcher's life and mind begin to break down as he lashes out against various factions of society while attempting to reconnect with his estranged daughter. The Butcher (known from Noe's short film Carne) has done some time in jail after beating up the guy who tried to seduce his teenage mentally-handicapped daughter. Now he wants to start a new life. He leaves his daughter in an institution and moves to Lille suburbs with his mistress. She promised him a new butcher shop. She lied. The butcher decides to go back to Paris and find his daughter. —Pavel Smutny <pavel.smutny.ekf@vsb.cz> The story of The Butcher, a working-class man whose entire life seems to be one of bad luck and bad breaks, some of which are his own doing. After trouble in Paris he moves north to Lille, hoping to start a new life. However, unfortunately for him, his luck doesn't change. With every bad break he becomes more bitter and looks for someone to blame - the people involved, society, the wealthy, the government, the country. With every disappointment his thoughts and intentions become darker and darker. —grantss France, 1980. A retired horsemeat butcher fights to survive. After abandoning his teenage daughter, and hoping to rebuild a new life, he moves to Lille with his pregnant lover. He doesn't love her. He likes even less living at his mother-in-law's apartment. Quickly his hopes turn into bitterness, and this bitterness into obsessions. Violence explodes. The man returns to Paris and tries to restart his life again. He counts on his luck to find work and new friends. But both are hard to find. In this city, like elsewhere, living is a selfish act. Alone against everyone the ex-butcher stays in the hotel room where many years ago his daughter was conceived. Without a penny and with the sole company of a gun charged with three bullets, he doesn't see clearly what the purpose of his life is. His stomach cries for food. His brain orders him to take revenge. And his heart... —<strand@strandreleasing.com>