Abused by his alcoholic father, the massive, heavily tattooed Polynesian rugby player Soane is desperate to leave his New Caledonian home. So he accepts an offer from a shady recruiter to play in France... only to arrive at the French airport broke and alone, with nothing but his Bible and the clothes on his back. This giant is told he's too small for the team.

With the help of a relative, he lands a position on a second-rate squad in a dreary provincial town, where he's pumped full of steroids, falls for a girl who's been passed around by his teammates, and hides from the violent creditors demanding the money they loaned him to fly to France. Sacha Wolff's powerful, compassionate debut film shows us a world we haven't seen before, through the eyes of this wounded, unforgettable Polynesian warrior.

"Weighing in at 111 kilos (244 lbs.), with a massive battering-ram body, Toki Pilioko has the sort of physique Hollywood casting agents inevitably pigeonhole... [Wolff's film] demonstrates the insight and sensitivity to look past that rough-and-tumble exterior to discover the conflicted soul within."  Peter Debruge, Variety