No Fear, No Die 1990

Two young men, Dah Isaach De Bankolé from Benin and Jocelyn Alex Descas from the Caribbean, team up to run an illegal cockfighting operation to earn quick cash. Dah handles the money while Jocelyn trains the birds, and among them is a champion named No Fear, No Die. Like all roosters, that bird is ultimately defeated, slowly chipping away at Jocelyn’s interest in the brutal sport.

A third partner, Pierre Jean-Claude Brialy, owns the space where the cockfights take place. He has known Jocelyn—and Jocelyn’s mother—before he immigrated to France, and he constantly haggles over money, pushing for more violence by urging the use of razor blades and steel spurs instead of the birds’ natural spurs. After one fight, Pierre even insinuates that he slept with Jocelyn’s mother Christa Lang.

Disgusted, Jocelyn sinks into drink and despair, developing an obsession with Pierre’s wife Toni Solveig Dommartin and naming one of the roosters after her. One night he gets drunk and releases the birds. Later, Dah and Jocelyn learn that Pierre has begun locking them in and plans to escalate the violence with steel spurs that night. Enraged, Jocelyn escapes and flees to Paris, but Dah tracks him down and convinces him to return for one final night in the ring.

At the final confrontation, Toni asks Jocelyn to take her with him after the fight when he and Dah leave, but he refuses. Pierre arranges a fight between Toni’s namesake rooster and a bird brought by his gypsy partners Jean Fernandez. Unable to watch his bird die, Jocelyn jumps into the ring to rescue it, but is stabbed by Michel Christopher Buchholz, Pierre’s son and Toni’s lover, before he can flee. Dah is arrested along with Toni, Michel and other members of the cockfighting ring. After his release, he quickly packs his few possessions and finally leaves.