Nina (Judith Chemla) loves her five-year-old son Enzo more than anything, but it's not easy raising a boy while living in the streets. France's welfare system intrudes occasionally, but Nina, like many social outcasts (the French call them les marginaux), prefers not to rely on their bureaucracy-laden assistance for fear of losing Enzo. Still, Nina is desperate to give Enzo a better life, and a chance encounter with a homeless man named Damien (Guillaume Depardieu) during a walk with Enzo in the woods near Versailles leads her to make a shocking decision. After only one night with the rugged, brooding Damien, Nina entrusts her son to him and then disappears, leaving the solitary woods-dweller with the fate of a young boy suddenly thrust upon him. Director Pierre Schoeller refuses to milk the relationship that develops between Damien and Enzo for obvious sentiment, and concentrates instead on how the brutal physical hardships of extreme poverty influence their relationship. It is in battling cold and hunger that the two gradually form a bond as strong as blood. Max Baissette de Malglaive's astoundingly naturalistic performance as the young Enzo is a perfect blend of innocence and stoicism. Guillaume Depardieu, in his final performance (he died tragically of pneumonia last October), brings a heart-piercing intensity to his role as Damien. It's a magnificent performance that not only makes both Nina's decision acceptable and Enzo's devotion understandable, but also gives the film its power to uplift us even as it follows its relentless course in depicting the misery of the physically and spiritually impoverished.