Intimate moments reduced to fleeting time in truck parking spaces. Loneliness explained away by excuses about a lifestyle that does not allow for partnership. This is the life of Étienne, a lorry driver married to the road in Pierre Le Gall’s Flesh and Fuel. Through his story, we see a love story take shape, while bigger themes of the disparity of wealth and opportunities between European countries forms behinds their complicated story.

Étienne lives on the road. A lorry driver from France, his romantic life is reduced to nameless encounters on overnight stays in his truck, as he passes from one European city to the next, making deliveries. When he meets Polish driver Bartosz, he begins to wish for a life where these fleeting encounters become true intimacy, but struggles to see a future when the job requires so much from the both of them.

Flesh and Fuel is first a love story. A story of Étienne falling in love after living a lonely life on the road. It may not seem that way at first, with his romantic encounters always taking place at night, and in the dark, but in truth, the film is one about love. How far we will go for a glimpse of the ones we are crushing on, and how our feelings for one another can change how we see our own present situation and what we want for the future.

It is quite a cliche movie in the end, one of fleeting encounters and of lovers looking for ways to meet in the dark in their little free time between work. But the film turns these cliches on their head by placing them in such an unexpected place. In the world of truck drivers and petrol stations, a world where we least expect to see a romance blooming. Between men who are often portrayed in film as being the predators chasing the innocent, Flesh and Fuel makes them the ones with longing. The ones searching for connection, but struggling to find it with the long roads they must take leading in every different direction.

Visually, the night scenes are striking, as the men are often lit together under phone screens or lights that only just peek through the windows. When we are faced with the daylight, we know this means loneliness, as Étienne and Bartosz drive alone. This contrast of what we come to expect from the lighting when telling a romantic story, that light means love and darkness is the unknown wilderness, is also used so well to continue to tell a cliche story, but with a twist.

Aside from the turns the film takes in its commentary on love, it also makes quite a stark commentary on the disparity of opportunities given to those from different European countries. Étienne from France, working for a company that has the luxury of paying its staff more to stay safe and travel well rested. Compared to Bartosz from Poland, working for a company who overworks their employees for half the pay of Étienne and his co-workers, to provide cheaper service to its clients. The film does not make this wealth disparity between countries, or the East/West of Europe its main point, but it does bring up important topics surrounding it, forcing us to confront these ideas as we ponder the future of the relationship between the two men.

There is also such a loving portrayal of queerness in the film, as we are never confronted with any “coming out” that is negative or received poorly. Étienne is out to his family, who try to set him up with other men. Even when Étienne is with his co-workers, who once again are often made to be the creepy villains in films, they are instead accepting and support him for who he is. This is a breath of fresh air, and also keeps the story focussed on the relationship between the two men, without becoming preachy or distracted.

Flesh and Fuel is a romance. It may not seem like that, in the darkness where Étienne is forced to meet others on the road in between long drives. But with its unique use of lighting and story that turns our expectations about truck drivers and romance on its head, it has a lot to say about love. Further, it comments on the impacts that the state of work in Europe has on romance, that will leave everyone melting in their seats and rooting for these two truck drivers to finally make it work together after a lifetime alone on the road.

Flesh and Fuel was screened at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Image courtesy of The PR Factory.