The burnished beauty of the landscape and the rhythms of country life in a small village in Provence are revealed to us in this appealing film through the eyes of a young man who is seriously disinclined to appreciate either. Thirty-something Antoine (Nicolas Cazalé) has escaped small-town life and his reactionary father to achieve marginal independence for himself as the kind of truculent Parisian waiter they don’t warn you about in the travelogues. When his father falls ill Antoine is persuaded to return to the fold, if only for his mother’s sake, in order to run the family’s store, most particularly the mobile grocery van which services the town’s rural neighbourhood.
Negotiating the roads of Provence and waiting in the sun for elderly customers to count their change may look like a sweet way to earn a living, but it does not suit Antoine one bit. We’re primed for a change of heart, of course, but things don’t happen in this observant, often funny film in quite the way you expect. Indeed, the engaging veracity of the film’s observation begins with Antoine’s bad attitude – temperamentally he’s a lot like his father – and the way the locals dig in, in response. Will the arrival of his hitherto platonic girlfriend from the city lighten his mood and open his eyes to what the rest of us can see?

“This small gem of a film, a surprise hit in France, is the second feature directed by Éric Guirado, who prepared for it by filming portraits of traveling tradesmen in southern and central France. For 18 months he focused on mobile grocers in Corsica, the Pyrenees and the Alps. As the movie affectionately observes the gruff, self-reliant customers, some of whom hobble to the van on canes, it has a documentary-like realism. You grow to respect these hardy, weather-beaten people who lived their whole lives close to the land... Cazalé’s subtle performance makes his transformation entirely believable and prevents this cautiously upbeat movie from curdling into a sentimental advertisement for the simple life.” — Stephen Holden, NY Times

“Guirado’s story – as humble as the old folks here who can make a day out of purchasing an aubergine – is inflected with immense emotion, mining the quotidian for its deeper charms and exploring how the individuals in a family dynamic shape and reshape each other. As Antoine slowly reassimilates into the family and community, his gradual comfort in being needed suggests one definition of adulthood: when rebellion against routine gives way to respect for tradition.” — Michelle Orange, Village Voice