Drôle de Félix

Dir: Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau | France, 2000 | 95 mins | Cert. 15 | subtitled in English

Félix (Sami Bouajila) is an almost unbelievably upbeat young Frenchman who manages to infect nearly everyone he meets with his beguiling, disarming and weirdly un-irritating positivity in the face of life's various challenges. Félix and his joie de vivre could be seen as being all the more impressive for the fact that, unlike that better-known icon of modern French cinematic chirpiness, "Amélie", he is dark-skinned, gay, and HIV-positive.

Deciding to take a trip from his home town of Dieppe to travel all the way to Marseille in the south of France in a romantic attempt to meet the father he never knew, Félix sets in train one of the most fascinating and genuinely enjoyable road movies of recent years. In a series of episodic set pieces he encounters different characters from a diverse French demographic, none of whom he is biologically related to, but each of whom functions as a potential new brother, sister, grandmother or cousin.

Drôle de Félix is a wonderful, little-seen masterpiece from the French director team Ducastel & Martineau. Flying in the face of pessimistic and divisive narratives about France's irreparable "tensions", it is realistic both about the realities of racism and neo-fascism and the potential for an uncrushable spirit and genuine joyousness despite (or perhaps because of) everything.

THURSDAY 26th FEBRUARY, and as normal doors open at 7pm and the night will start at 7.15pm.

For deaf friends the film has English sub titles. For those needing dial-a-ride the film is 95 minutes long, so the night should end about 9pm.