NEW DAWN

It's hard not to recall the lyrics of the Talking Head's most famous song as Alain, a 30-year-old married father and game software developer in Paris, suddenly finds himself thinking, ?Mon Dieu, what have I done?? when he looks around at his smothering existence and decides to find out, really, “where does that highway go to?” After fantasizing elaborately about quitting the job and declaring a “new dawn” for himself, Alain goes ahead with the plan, which is really no plan at all. He tumbles into bed with an employment counselor, without design or forethought, and she refers him to a training-scheme for entry-level heavy equipment operators in the countryside. There Alain bunks in a camp for novice earth-movers, finds a refreshing camaraderie among the others taking the course, and strikes up a close friendship with Manuel, a younger, unsure applicant. Alain's deft touch with joysticks, superficially resembling machine control levers, puts him at the head of the class. But there is a price to be paid for the complicated hero's path to self-discovery, and it strains his relationships with wife Pascale and best buddy Manuel. You may ask yourself, is Alain right? Or is he wrong? (In French with English subtitles.)