13-year-old Achille waits expectantly for his father to be released from prison.

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13-year-old Achille has a great idol - his father Joe, who's been in prison since his son's birth. With great imagination, Achille draws for himself the life that Papa Joe and Mama Pénélope must have had. His expectations are great when Joe is released, but his macho dad doesn't want to have anything to do with him, just as Pénélope wants nothing to do with Joe. She gives him an ultimatum: either be a good father to Achille or she'll divorce him.

Cyanure has no time for convention, which is respectable in itself, but the movie never manages to access the emotions of its audience. Maybe things would have been different if Séverine Cornamusaz had built up more closeness to Achille – excellently portrayed by Etzlinger – and focused on the coming-of-age part of the story. Instead, the director patches together an intensely dramatic finish to the family's story, as if she were desperate for the "drama" she shuns at the beginning.