The Kid With A Bike (Le Gamin au Velo) is a Belgian coming of age film written and directed by the Belgian brothers; Jean-PIerre and Luc Dardebbe, originally played at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival winning the Grand Jury Prize award and a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2012 Golden Globes. The film unfolds with Cyril Catoul (Thomas Doret) an 11 year old boy who is living at a Children’s home due to the abandonment of his deadbeat father and sole caretaker. Despite his father’s rejection and total dismissal Cyril’s holds on to the idea that his father truly loves him. In the search for his father,Cyril peddles around town making sudden turns and crossing through traffic.
The sight of his careless nature emits frustration as one is constantly hoping he doesn’t crash. With the appearance of a too-kind an unrealistic character named Samantha ( Cécile De France); a hairdresser who agrees to keep Cyril on weekends, the film reveals itself to be a modern fairy tale where classic characters are one dimensional and easy to relate to.
Cyril soon discovers that his father; Guy Catoul (Jérémie Renier) is starting a new life without him. Guy Catoul, Cyril’s father is a flat character who can be best described as cold and selfish. The only complex and believable character in the film appears to be Cyril. He exemplifies true human nature which is; people are not entirely good or evil but a combination of both. Reminiscent of Pinocchio temptation comes in as the Villain when a young thug by the name of Wes (Egon Di Mateo) befriends Cyril and lures him into a life of crime. Cyril is a dynamic character evolving from an innocent boy to a mature young man. He is at times cold, violent but also loyal and sensitive. It is an uncommon story as it is an ordinary one, for it is truly a tale of adolescence and the internal conflicts that come with it.