Le nez dans le ruisseau (2012)

As the tricentennial of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s birth approaches, journalist Marie Mercier is assigned to report on Confignon, a Swiss village in the canton of Geneva where the philosopher once lived. She takes the assignment reluctantly, having been threatened with dismissal by her boss. There, she notices Tom Dubois, a solitary boy who seems to know many details about the philosopher’s life instinctively, even though his father has never taught him anything about it. Marie Mercier contacts philosophy professor Auguste Stohler, who has devoted his life to studying Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s biography. She goes with Stohler to Tom Dubois’s home so the professor can break the ice with the boy, who, like a real wild child, spends his days alone in nature near a stream. His knowledge of Rousseau makes him seem like a prodigy, and he is bullied by his classmates, so his father is increasingly considering sending him away to boarding school.