Director Lola Quivoron talks about France’s underground motocross scene in her Rodeo, her award-winning Cannes debut.

Tom Cruise explodes on screen at Mach 10 in the opening set Top Gun: Maverick It’s the longest-running Need for Speed ​​film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

But for lovers of low-budget cinema verité, Lola Quivoron’s film you are welcomeWhich won this year’s Cannes Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section and is sold worldwide by Les Films du Losange, it’s an equally compelling portrait of an adrenaline junkie.

Newcomer Julie Ledru plays Julia, a poor project girl on the outskirts of Paris whose drug of choice is not fighter jets but high-speed dirt bikes. “I was born with a bike between my legs,” he says at one point, before blatantly stealing a car that will help him enter the very masculine world of underground motocross racers.

He’s a world-first director that Quivoron knows well. Quivoron spent four years as a photojournalist and nonfiction filmmaker documenting the “urban rodeo” racers who brought and adapted America’s rebellious motocross culture to mostly poor and immigrant communities in French suburbs.

For its film debut, Quivoron combines gritty, realistic style, including a series of spectacular camera stunts, with more genre elements, transforming Rodeo into a high-speed, coming-of-age heist story.

Talk to the hollywood reporterThe director also points to the film’s political message.

“For these people who come from very poor backgrounds and backgrounds, riding a bike is a way to get revenge on the cards that fate has dealt them… They need to make some noise so the community around them can hear.”

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You made a documentary about outlaw motorcyclists in France before making it the subject of your first feature film. How did you get involved with this whole subculture?

That’s what I discovered in 2015 when I got in touch with the largest community in France. I entered that community and got to know them a lot and really formed social bonds of friendship. It was when I was still in film school and spending a lot of time with them on the road, you know, just having barbecues and taking a lot of pictures. I created this documentary collection of materials and memories of my time with them.

My short documentary baltimore dream (2016) was mainly naturalistic in approach, very documentary and very close to reality. this feature you are welcomeThere is a more dramatized version of reality that goes beyond naturalism and becomes something of an epic.

It’s true that you sometimes use fantastical, almost surreal elements in the film. But before we talk specifically about the film, I want to know a little more about your experience of integrating into this community. What is it about this motocross community that fascinates you?

I am fascinated by its physical appearance, by the physical relationship that cyclists have with their bikes. And with the practice of the dirt bike itself. When you’re on tour with them, it’s very infectious, very seductive. Of course there is a risk, there is always a risk.

Then there’s the noise. Bicycles roar like lions. A group of bicycles creates a symphony, there is this physical vibration, this energy released.

The practice itself is very poetic, very spectacular. It’s very technical, like skiing or snowboarding. They have to learn and then share and challenge each other, learn different tricks, push their own limits. They then film their exploits and share them online or on social media. Of course, the subculture was born in the US and imported to France, but it lives on and thrives in these videos that people share on social media.

I’m also very fascinated by his relationship with death, because death can happen at any time. I saw many accidents on the road.

There is also a political component. All the money is invested in the bikes, which are very expensive. It’s a testament to the passion they have for what they do. The practice itself has become highly criminalized, prohibited by law everywhere. It is very marginal and very unclear. For these people, who come from very poor origins and origins, riding a bicycle is a way of getting revenge on the cards that fate has dealt them. It is a way of creating an alternative family and expressing the anger and rage they feel inside. I like the idea that they need noise to be heard by the people around them, the community.

How did you find your lead actress, Julie Ledreux? This is your first presentation.

Having spent time with these groups since 2015, I knew there were very few female riders. They are very, very rare. It was difficult to meet someone. These are tightly knit societies and it’s a male-dominated environment. The main character in my movie was a dream character, someone I had dreamed of and dreamed about for a long time. I started writing it based on fantasy, but I never met him.

Then I discovered Julie on Instagram. Her ID was just: “Unknown female, 95 years old.” 95 is the postcode where he lives, north of Paris. I wrote to him. We met and there was real chemistry between us, it was truly a miracle. He immediately understood what he was looking for in a character. And she just embodied the figure I dreamed of. His physicality, his energy he could release. And he immediately understood the character in a very intimate way. At one point I thought I was fooling myself because the level of understanding was so close and strong.

I reworked the entire character to be directly based on him, adding stories he told me about his life and about himself. And the trust between us, which had existed between them since the first meeting, grew. Julie had a deep understanding of what she was trying to do with the film and we were in complete agreement.

For example, I’m not binary. I recognize how commonly women are portrayed and feel no particular connection to the coded image of men. July is the same.

When I gave her the script and we started rehearsing, Julie became Julia’s character. It was about changing a vowel at the end of the name. Julia and Julie met halfway. They have the same energy, the same anger, but Julia is less able to express that anger than Julia.

Unfortunately, I’m running out of time, but I have to ask about the stunts in the movie. How did you do it, especially the dramatic roadside robbery scene? It’s an incredibly impressive setting for a low-budget movie.

We had a fantastic, amazing stunt team, but we were never out of the woods. For the opening scene (of the Motorcross rally) we had to organize a specific event and invited real members of the community to join us as extras, which they did.

So they go and do the tricks they know how to do. They don’t wear a helmet, that’s how they ride it, but it’s certainly very dangerous.

We were going to get them to sign a release form saying that they agreed to do so. The material was absolutely amazing because the riders were given the freedom to act and we gained their trust.

But we had accidents. One of the pilots broke his leg. The other broke another bone. It was very difficult, very technical. Even the takedown is very technical, it has to be very precise and choreographed. But the fact that there were no major accidents, I think, was due to the trust we built with the public and the care we took in working with them.