La Traversée

When I was born, my father had already returned to the United States. For reasons I never discovered, my mother didn’t want to tell him about me. She finally decided to do so years later, but there was no longer anyone at the address she had and her letter came back. She didn’t tell me about this letter; I came across it by accident, hidden in a drawer. My mother never speaks of my father, and when she does, it’s so reluctantly that I haven’t the heart or the insensitivity to ask too many questions. All I know about him is his name, date of birth, height and profession at the time: soldier. When I told all this to Sébastien, he suggested we both set off to find my father and even to make a film out of it. (Stéphane Bouquet)