This is the story of two people who are worlds apart: Hervé, a young man who owns a Bed and Breakfast and his neighbour, Raoul, a 54-year-old Argentinian immigrant who lives, and at times even cloisters himself in a mythology and a world all of his own. Raoul is a movie enthusiast who believes that actors are gods who can die in one film and reappear in another. When Hervé met Raoul for the first time, Raoul was on his knees combing a lawn, blade of grass by blade of grass blade. He invited Hervé into his home and a friendship was born. These are truly autobiographical images that were shot over a year's time without any outside assistance. The images that went into the making of the documentary Don Raoul tell and reinterpret the story of this friendship. It is a touching portrait of Raoul with his particular way of being and language, as well as a portrait of his friend, Hervé, whose extraordinarily naïve attempts to help his friend also make him a touching character. It is the story of an uneasy friendship that is also a reflection on the difficulty of giving.
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Commentary by Claire Valade, Film critic from Quebec
This video is suffused with both great tenderness and deep malaise. Setting out to film and create a portrait of Raoul, his unique and enigmatic neighbour, Hervé Misserey does not hide his deepening friendship with his subject and his heartfelt compassion for the eccentric, elusive man-child. Yet he also bears witness to the essential cruelty of a friendship that was doomed from the start. In his sincere desire to help Raoul and save him from his misery, Misserey understands too late that the man only feels at peace in his imaginary world; he simply wants to help the people around him, not to live in the real world. A work as beautiful and moving as it is brutal and disturbing.
