When two people love each other, we assume everything else should fall into place. But sometimes fundamental differences can make a relationship difficult despite a strong connection and great chemistry. Using elements of both comedy and drama, the Newfest entry Looking for Cheyenne (Oublier Cheyenne, in French with subtitles) is a skillful and creative exploration of the dilemma "can't live with her, can't live without her."

Sonia (Aurelia Petit), a dedicated high school science teacher still hurting from a bad break-up, spends the occasional night with other companions but is always scanning the horizon for Cheyenne (Mila Dekker). She hooks up with Pierre (Malik Zidi), a cute young anarchist who declares his love and Beatrice (Guilaine Londez), a cool dyke with bad intentions whom she meets in a lesbian bar. But Cheyenne is ever-present in her thoughts.

A year after being laid off her job as a journalist and with unemployment at an all-time high, Cheyenne still hasn't found a job. Unable to pay her heat or electric bill, she becomes disillusioned with “the system” and decides to live independent from “the machine.” She packs all her possessions into bags, secures them on her bike and starts peddling towards the country, sleeping alongside the road on the way.

Director Valerie Minetto cleverly combines realism with fantasy as the characters show up in each others bedrooms and kitchens to discuss their relationships, argue and philosophize. Pierre appears while Sonia is sleeping in Beatrice's bed. “What are you doing here?” Beatrice inquires. “I'm in her thoughts”, he replies. When Beatrice points out that Sonia has chosen to spend the night with her, Pierre declares, “I don't mind.” He is happy to share without giving up his claim. Cheyenne appears and she clearly is not.

Sonia finally breaks down and pays a visit to Cheyenne's apartment, where she discovers that Cheyenne has cleared out.

After learning that her closest colleague at work is leaving, and becoming fed up with Beatrice's casual mistreatment, Sonia declares “There's no love here” and drives out to the countryside to look for Cheyenne.

She finds Cheyenne sharing a trailer with an even more disaffected woman, Edith, who doesn't want to get close to anyone, not even her sort-of boyfriend whom she sends packing. Edith and Cheyenne are living off the grid, with only candles and lanterns to illuminate their trailer at night. They skin and butcher a caught rabbit for dinner, and viewers can see the women's breath indoors.

Cheyenne and Sonia are overjoyed to be back in each others arms but quickly begin a retread of the arguments that led to their breakup. Although Sonia is willing to leave the city and look for a job nearby so they can live together, Cheyenne won't compromise. “You'd need a car to get to work and electricity to correct your papers,” she complains.

Sonia storms out and Cheyenne follows, but when Cheyenne won't set foot in her rented car, she speeds away. Back at the trailer, Cheyenne realizes that she is about to become Edith; such an uncompromising loner that she is completely walled off from human connection.

In a split decision, she grabs her bike and tears off after Sonia. But as she nears her goal the bike crashes and she is thrown face down in gravel and knocked unconscious. When she comes to, neither she nor the bike are in any condition to continue on their journey. She could walk home but there's only one way to get to Sonia now. Cheyenne finally chooses love over principle and hitchhikes her way to Sonia's door.

Looking for Cheyenne is a story of love and longing and the difficulty of compromise, even in order to hold on to love. But it is also a clever critique of the runaway unemployment situation in France and the resulting disillusionment and despair of the French unemployed (embodied by Cheyenne and Edith).

The acting is uniformly excellent, the contrast of blonde and passive Sonia to dark and intense Cheyenne works well. Both leading ladies are beautiful yet real-looking. (The European habit of allowing actresses to look like real people without being coiffed, made-up, and lit to a standard of perfection only available under the specialized conditions of movie-making is admirable.) Malik Zidi as Pierre brings a delightful insouciance to his scenes, providing a light and comic counterpoint to the more dramatic elements.

Minetto deftly integrates narrative with the surreal in a method that provides access to the characters' inner feelings, interpersonal conflicts and unconscious motivations yet doesn't interrupt the story. Cheyenne's complaints resonate as both political critique and an expression of the alienation she is feeling, making the audience wonder whether she is on the brink of madness or seeing things more clearly than ever.

Get more info about the film at Newfest.org