Adam’s Breaking Walk
“Walking towards Compostela should be reimbursed by Social Security! » enthuses Françoise, 61 years old, reader of Pilgrim and farmer in Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire). Like four other subscribers to our weekly, she has just discovered Compostela.
The film features Adam who, following a repeat offense, ends up accepting the last alternative measure to prison: a so-called “break-up” march from Puy-en-Velay to Santiago de Compostela (Spain). For three months, Fred, his companion (played by Alexandra Lamy), will try to channel the aggression and despair of this 17-year-old young man.
Learn to marvel again
In June 2025, we were in Cahors (Lot) on the set of the film where we met Yvon Rontard, director of the Seuil association whose action inspired the screenplay. Initiated in 1998, break-up marches allow juvenile delinquents to escape their usual environment to see a better future.
“Managing the violence that can arise at any time is the central mission of the support workers,” he explained to us. Young people, by walking 25 km a day, without connection or cell phone, are learning again to marvel at everyday life: eating, breathing, accepting help. As in the film, we encourage them to write down their impressions in a notebook every day. »
On this arduous path, Adam will fall several times. “The question is not about falling, but about learning to get up again by mobilizing the right resources!” » explained Maëlle Vidou, on the Valentré bridge which spans the Lot. In the film, the young woman plays Estella, Adam’s lover.
“Victim of an accident, I had my leg amputated at 19 years old. A year later, I experienced walking as the lever of my rebirth. By traveling with able-bodied and disabled people during an expedition in Corsica, I understood that I could start living like everyone else again. »
If Maëlle agreed to play Estella, who looks so much like her, it is to make people with disabilities visible. A specialized educator, she does not want to become an actress. “What was important to me was to testify: we can be young, work and have fun, even if we are missing pieces! »
Alongside Estella and Fred, Adam will learn to overcome his social handicap: “We are both hurt except for you, people want to help you,” he says to his friend in the film. “Unloved during his childhood, Adam, my character, experiences an inner revolution to free himself from self-destruction,” confided Julien Le Berre on set. Moreover, if Yann Samuell, the director of the film, chose to name the hero Adam, it is because “adamah” refers, in Hebrew, to the earth of clay that can be modeled and transformed.
A search for landmarks
Adam’s transformation is spiritual, certainly. “Without being proselytizing, this fiction offers an authentic and attractive image of the Christian faith. And that feels good! » confides Jérôme, 59 years old, subscriber to Pilgrim . Several sequences in the feature film in fact refer to a possible conversion of the young person finding refuge with the Virgin Mary in a church in Conques (Aveyron). Very touching, the Hail Mary slamé, composed by Romeo Lowercase, was unanimously appreciated by our readers. Jean-Nicolas, 63, has fond memories of it: “This film reflects the spirit of our time. Only 15% of the walkers we welcome in guest rooms in Puy-en-Velay say they are believers, but most of our visitors say they are looking for landmarks, meaning and sometimes spirituality. » And his wife added: “During the screening, I laughed a lot and I also cried. Beauty of the landscapes, mutual aid and the joy of encounters: this film tells the real effects of walking on bodies and hearts. » On the way to Compostela as elsewhere, inner transformation is possible, when trust is given to the most wounded among us.
