Hit the road with hunky truckers whose hot and heavy hook-up in a roadside beat leads to unexpected depths. Pierre Le Gall’s haunting debut feature is a luminous insight into life, lust and love all played out in a cramped truck cabin. Winner of the inaugural Queer Palm Revelation award at Cannes.
Flesh and Fuel
Flesh and Fuel
Director
Pierre Le Gall
Runtime
90 Minutes
Country
France, Poland
Classification
Unclassified 18+
Shy and gentle-hearted Étienne (Les Misérables’ Alexis Manenti) relishes the quiet, solitary life on the road as a trucker ferrying goods around French highways. Always on the go, he gets his emotional fix checking in with his sister and beloved nephew but satisfies his more animal urges with the horny dudes he picks up in service station toilets and wooded roadside beats. Almost busted by the cops with Polish driver Bartosz (Julian Świeżewski), the younger man’s sure-footed response gets them out of a scrape that could have cost them their job and their freedom. Pretty soon, they’re going at it in the cramped confines of a truck cabin. As erotic lust shifts gears into an against-the-odds romance, is this the trick that leads to something stronger? A deeply felt road movie with a difference. Winning the inaugural Queer Palm Revelation award at Cannes, debut feature director Pierre Le Gall’s understated yet unmooring vision announces an exhilarating new talent with a keen ear for working-class authenticity, not seen since Josh O’Connor’s fumbling farmer in God’s Own Country (2017).
“An unlikely road romance with plenty of heart.”
The Hollywood Reporter
“Flesh and Fuel has an inherent romanticism … which makes it feel incredibly triumphant each time Étienne and Bartosz get a chance to meet and embrace.”
Vague Visages
“Alternating between the raw and the tender, the rough-edged and the subtle.”
Cineuropa
“A dreamy debut feature from Le Gall … resulting in a gay trucker fantasy realised, that convinces us to chase the ones we love and them hold tight.”
The Queer Review
Cannes - Queer Palm Revelation
Melbourne
Film Credits
Director
Pierre Le Gall
Year
2026
Country
France & Poland
Language
English, French & Polish
Subtitles
English
Type
Feature Fiction
Program Strand
World Cinema
Producer
Nicolas Blanc
Cinematographer
Antoine Cormier
Editor
Xavier Sirven
Cast
Alexis Manenti & Julian Świeżewski
Music
Paul Sabin
Film Source
Pyramide International
Genre
Drama, LGBTQIA+, Road Movie & Romance
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