They Came Back
| They Came Back | |
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| Directed by | Robin Campillo |
| Produced by | Caroline Benjo Carole Scotta |
| Written by |
Robin Campillo Brigitte Tijou |
| Starring |
Géraldine Pailhas Jonathan Zaccaï Frédéric Pierrot |
| Music by |
Jocelyn Pook Martin Wheeler |
| Cinematography | Jeanne Lapoirie |
| Edited by | Robin Campillo |
| Distributed by | Haut et Court |
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Release date
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Running time
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102 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
They Came Back (French: Les Revenants), released in the UK as The Returned, is a French zombie film, released in 2004. The film was screened at the Hamburg Fantasy Filmfest in Germany, the Venice Film Festival in Italy, and the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada.
Unlike modern zombie films, in which the undead characters wish to digest or otherwise harm the human characters, the 70 million people who return from the dead in They Came Back are cognitively conscious and healthy, having not suffered any biological damage. They want simply to re-integrate themselves into society. In the French village where the film takes place, the town's population must cope with the social and emotional ramifications of the dead coming back to life.
Without warning the dead begin to return to life, appearing near their burial sites alive and healthy, and heading en masse toward their home towns. The event lasts for roughly two hours, returning an estimated 70 million people to life, all having died within the previous 10 years; more than 13,000 return in the film's unnamed city alone. Taking cues from the rest of the country and the U.N., the city's council and mayor (Victor Garrivier) make plans to house the returned and gradually help reintroduce them to their lives.
Reintroduction of the returned poses both practical and emotional challenges. Additionally, the returned suffer from effects similar to those seen after a severe concussion, including lapses in awareness and connection with reality, further worsened by their universal inability to sleep and constant desire to wander. This causes them to perform sluggishly during their day jobs, but a small number of returned are observed having clandestine nighttime meetings with each other where their symptoms seem to vanish.
The returned begin reuniting with their loved ones, including the mayor with his returned wife Martha (Catherine Samie), married couple Isham (Djemel Barek) and Véronique (Marie Matheron) with their returned 6-year-old son Sylvain (Saady Delas), and Rachel (Géraldine Pailhas) with her returned husband Mathieu (Jonathan Zaccaï). Rachel is reluctant to see Mathieu at first, until one day he follows her home, acting as though he never left. After some trepidation Rachel accepts him, and the two make love. Rachel and Mathieu's reunion is witnessed by Gardet (Frédéric Pierrot), a doctor who has become suspicious of the returned and Mathieu in particular, after following the latter to a nighttime meeting. Gardet later attempts to tell Rachel of this, expressing concern, but is told to leave her alone.
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