The film opens with a guy released from jail ,with sounds of a cell door clanging open, keys , just sounds, no picture. Then a train passing thru a tunnel which might symbolize the famous light he's been longing for for months ;it's nothing but illusion; his father's window looks onto the railroad track ,in a housing estate ,which everybody seems to wait for the train which takes them somewhere else ; train in vain indeed .
The ex-convict's father (the sadly missed Bacri) ,a widower ,lives with his two sons and tries to make the best of a dead end situation ; the elder son works in a supermarket where the employees are requested to wear a mouse mask with long ears a la Mickey during the "cheese week" ; "it's no longer carnival!" the youngest says , quitting his job ; "you 're too proud" says his dad , "nobody else will hire someone who's spent some time in jail"; this laughable disguise speaks volumes about the way the executives treat their humble staff !
All these people, waiting for their ship/train to come in, seems to live in a western setting :Bacri 's neighbor,his lover, was abandoned by her husband and her son was never able to get over it : as he 's always been told ,his dad resembles Gary Cooper. So he takes refuge in the movies :excerpts of "Vera Cruz" , but the imdb page seems incomplete for a brief appearance by Julie London indicates that glimpses of "the man of the west" are included too .
Everyone has his dream : Bacri's elder son 's dream is to live to Morroco :his mom was arab ,but she arrived in France when she was 15 and she was buried here ;"what do you know about that country"? The father mutters ;"you would not stay five minutes there";his brother dreams of something else and his papa fears he might come back to drug-trafficking .
One night , a rider comes riding his horse through the town :might a desperate teenager ,by believing in his dream, turn it into reality?
