Just as in his impressive and very personal début film Nord, in this unusual and daring film, Xavier Beauvois himself plays the leading role of art-history student Benoit. Benoit has been called up for military service, but tries to get out of it in every possible way. He even tries to enact an extremely dangerously-real suicide attempt. He is admitted to hospital and this has the desired effect: he is dismissed from military service. The concrete reason is however dramatic: he is sero-positive. Benoit, who was already mad about the black romanticism from the era of Delacroix and Byron, throws himself with abandon into a few last moments of pleasure. When he is locked up after a serious traffic offence, he meets the drug- dealer and bon vivant Omar (an impressive role by Roschdy Zem). Omar becomes his guide in the world of designer drugs and cheap sex. To make it big, they travel to Rotterdam – the Mecca of young French drug users and part-time dealers. Their plan succeeds and Benoit travels with his part of the booty to Italy for his ultimate Grand Tour. In Rome he meets Claudia (Chiara Mastroianni) and it briefly looks as if life could be shaped by beauty and happiness. But death beckons. Benoit becomes a contemporary Byron.
