The director was born in 1964, the son of a farming family in Villefranche-de-Rouergue in the southwest of France, where most of his films are set. His most successful film to date, Stranger by the Lake, won the Best Director Award in Un Certain Regard at Cannes as well as the Queer Palm. Also a novelist, he published his debut title “Ici commence la nuit” in 2014. His film Staying Vertical screened in competition at the 2016 Cannes film festival.