neumu [ cinematronic ]




	The Adventures Of Felix
	Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau Sami Bouajila, Pierre-Loup Rajot 2001 In French; widescreen; English subtitles.		Felix (Sami Bouajila) is an optimistic French-Algerian who is laid off from his job in the north of France and decides to hitchhike south to Marseilles to find the father he never knew. Felix is also a young gay man who is HIV-positive and keeping AIDS at bay with drug therapy. Although he has a strong, loving relationship with his boyfriend (Pierre-Loup Rajot), there's been a void in Felix's life since his mother died, and he thinks he might be able to address that emptiness by getting closure with his dad. Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, whose previous collaboration was the happy/sad French musical "Jeanne and the Perfect Guy," co-authored and co-directed the account of Felix's journey. It's not as daring as a musical, but the new film is more proficient. One part amiable travelogue and one part spirit-lifting dramedy, it illustrates how a person can go off in search of a biological relative and end up amassing a surrogate family from the strangers he meets along the way.