Eldorado (2008 film)

Eldorado is a Belgian seriocomic road movie in the Belgian surrealist and absurdist tradition, directed by Bouli Lanners and selected for the Directors’ Fortnight (40th anniversary) 61st Cannes Film Festival 2008. The film received the André Cavens Award for Best Film by the Belgian Film Critics Association (UCC). It was the official entry from Belgium for the 81st Academy Awards, but was not chosen as one of the films to be nominated during the ceremony.

It was filmed in Wallonia.

It had the working title California Carwash and was based on an incident from Lanners's past.

Plot
Yvan (Bouli Lanners), a used car salesman, comes home late one evening to his house in the Belgian countryside. He discovers that a burglar (Fabrice) has just broken into his house and is hiding under his bed. When the burglar tries to escape, Yvan knocks him over by throwing a metal pipe at him. Upon confronting him, he discovers that the burglar is a young man in need of money to fuel his drug addiction. Yvan decides to help this young man, who says his names is Elie, by not turning him over to the police and by giving him a little money for the road. Finally, out of pity and remembering his own brother who had died of an overdose, Yvan decides to drive Elie, at his request, to the home of his parents in southern Belgium. Thus begins a journey across Wallonia, on which they face unsettling encounters with random people and humorous situations.

Cast

 * Bouli Lanners : Yvan
 * Fabrice Adde : Elie/Didier
 * Philippe Nahon : The collector
 * Françoise Chichéry : Elie's mother
 * Didier Toupy : The naturist Alain Delon
 * Stefan Liberski : A mechanic
 * Baptiste Isaïa : Another mechanic
 * Jean-Jacques Rausin : A biker
 * Renaud Rutten : Another biker
 * Jean-Luc Meekers : The car distributor

Won
Belgian Film Critics Association (UCC)
 * Best Film

Nominated
César Awards Best Foreign film in India "Film Fare Awards"
 * Best Foreign Film (lost to Waltz with Bashir)