An hilarious and bizarre family chronicle, Les Convoyeurs Attendent (The Carriers are Waiting) covers one year in the life of the Walloon family. Stuck in a dismal factory district on the outskirts of town, the film is seen mostly through the eyes of the 8 year-old Luise who is trying to come to grips with the absurdity of her daily life. Domineering, ambitious father, Roger is a reporter for the local paper who spends his time snatching news scoops of other people's crimes from the police band on his radio. As the millennium draws near. Roger sets his eye an making it big. A Shopkeeper's Association contest catches his eye: all he has to do is train his son to break the door opening record (40,000 times in 24 hours) to win a car!

Shot in stark black and white, the domestic wranglings of Les Convoyeurs Attendent take on a grim poetry. Beneath the mundane and microcosmic lies a fable about modernity at the cusp of a new era. Director Benoit Manage makes exemplary use of the cast, contrasting the films deliciously funny events with bone-dry, deadpan performances. As Roger drags his family's dignity to the depths of humiliation, pathos takes on new lows. Endearing, humourous and painful, this Cannes Director's Fortnight selection is first rate tragi-comedy.