Three strangers, one stubborn search and a city full of paperwork: Bye Bye Morons is a French comedy-drama from 2020, directed by Albert Dupontel, who also appears in its cast.
What is Bye Bye Morons about?
Suze Trappet is a hairdresser in her forties who learns that she is seriously ill. The news sends her back to the one piece of unfinished business in her life: the baby she was made to give up when she was fifteen. Finding that child means fighting through offices, files and officials who have no answers. Along the way she collides with JB, a man of fifty in the grip of a burnout, and with Mr. Blin, a blind archivist whose enthusiasm tends to outrun his caution. None of the three planned to team up, yet they end up tearing across the city together. Their hunt is frantic and often absurd, but the feeling underneath is tender: a mother who wants to know what became of her child before it is too late.
About the cast
The cast list opens with Jackie Berroyer, Albert Dupontel and Virginie Efira, followed by Nicolas Marié, Marilou Aussilloux, Adèle Galloy and Philippe Uchan. Terry Gilliam is also credited among the performers. Dupontel works on both sides of the camera here, as director and as actor.
Context & significance
French cinema has a strong tradition of comedies that take aim at bureaucracy, and this one places itself squarely there: the obstacle is not a villain but a system of counters, forms and archives. The mix of genres is the point. Labelled both comedy and drama, the story treats illness, a lost child and professional collapse as material for breathless chases without pretending they are light subjects. A brisk running time of 87 minutes suits a tale told as one long pursuit. The three central figures are deliberately mismatched, a gravely ill woman, a burnt-out man and an archivist who cannot see, and the humour comes from how poorly suited they are to the task and how doggedly they keep at it. A French production, it was well received.
Watching Bye Bye Morons on Ktime
On K-Time, Bye Bye Morons comes with a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, so you can choose between hearing it in Farsi and keeping the original audio. This page is free to read; playback needs a K-Time account login. The interface is in Farsi throughout, made for Iranians living abroad.