Son of the Shark is a 1993 French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 film directed by Agnès Merlet

Agnès Merlet

Agnès Merlet is a French film director who is known for directing Son of the Shark, Artemisia and Dorothy Mills...

, about two brothers, Martin (Ludovic Vandendaele) and Simon (Eric Da Silva), and their adventures as juvenile delinquents

Juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...

 in the north of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

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Inspired by a well-known passage of Lautréamont's Les Chants de Maldoror

Les Chants de Maldoror

Les Chants de Maldoror is a poetic novel consisting of six cantos. It was written between 1868 and 1869 by the Comte de Lautréamont, the pseudonym of Isidore Lucien Ducasse...

, Martin holds a belief, in which he claims to be "the son of a female shark

Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....

". He hopes that someday he and his brother, Simon will disappear to the bottom of the ocean

Ocean

An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...

, where they will live happily ever after surrounded by dancing fish.

Awards and nominations

The film won the 1994 European Film Award for "Young European Film of the Year", the Avignon Film Festival

Avignon Film Festival

Avignon Film Festival is also known as the Rencontres Cinématographiques Franco-Américain d'Avignon. The festival used to be called the French/American Film Workshop.The festival took place in Avignon, France every year and was devoted to promoting Film...

's Prix Tournage, and the Joseph Plateau Award for Best Belgian actress. It was also nominated for a César Award

César Award

The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....

 for Best Debut

César Award for Best Debut

The César Award for Best Debut was an award given out at the annual César Awards between 1982 and 1999...

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