16/05/2026 - CANNES 2026: As a lone lorry driver swept up in an international whirlwind romance, Alexis Manenti captivates in Pierre Le Gall’s original debut feature film

There’s nothing quite like an iconic scene – and even better, when it’s unexpected and unusual (no spoilers) – to make a debut feature film truly memorable. This is certainly the case with Pierre Le Gall’s Flesh and Fuel, which premiered as a special screening during Critics’ Week at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. And, beyond this climax, the French filmmaker pulls off the feat of directing a romantic film (“I didn’t think that would happen to a bloke like me”) set in a world that, on the surface, seems anything but romantic: that of lorry drivers.

“You only get a break at the end of the day: the harder you work, the better you sleep.” The son of a lorry driver, Étienne (the impeccable Alexis Manenti) sees his job as a vocation: “I’m focused on the road.” Dedicated and meticulous, he goes about his rounds like a metronome – journeys, loading and unloading, nights and days in his cab, car parks, petrol stations, docks and warehouses. The tarmac rolls by, industrial estates spew out their fumes, and only radio contact with his base and a few messages with his sister seem to connect this young, single man in his forties — who finds fulfilment in secret, chance sexual encounters — to the outside world. Until the day he meets Bartosz (Julian Świeżewski), a Polish lorry driver. It’s love at first sight, and Étienne will stop at nothing to find him again. But the lovers’ routes are not easily compatible, as Étienne now only drives in France and England (“hell: customs, the tunnel, the waiting”), whilst Bartosz criss-crosses the entire Old Continent, from Rotterdam to Denmark, via The Hague, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Larissa, Frankfurt, Lithuania, and so on. From FaceTime calls to highly complicated meet-ups, their feelings are put to the test…

By portraying the professional world of the two protagonists with great authenticity (price wars between service providers, physical and psychological exhaustion – “they don’t realise the risks they’re making you take” – team spirit, the drivers’ financial insecurity and the difficulty of maintaining a normal private life, etc.), the film displays great sensitivity in its on-the-ground (and on-the-move) exploration of loneliness. This feeling of loneliness is further enhanced by Alexis Manenti’s performance and by the fine work of cinematographer Antoine Cormier (who realistically captures this world of grey and concrete) and Paul Sabin’s music score. This excellent story (written by the director with Camille Perton and Martin Drouot), alternating between the raw and the tender, the rough-edged and the subtle emotional moments, the withdrawn individualism and the solidarity born of passing on values, also knows how to bounce back effectively (in a more traditional vein of the quest for paradise lost). For sometimes we must move beyond our own mental boundaries, question ourselves and break free from our protective routines in order to truly discover ourselves, to love and to be loved.

Flesh and Fuel was produced by Ex Nihilo and co-produced by Polish company Lumisenta Film Foundation. Pyramide International handles international sales.

(Translated from French)