An American story that only the French could make, Jimmy P., Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian cries out for its own niche, one it will hopefully find beyond festival appreciation. The strange but true story of a Native American who underwent Freudian psychotherapy with a brilliant Romanian analyst after World War II proves a good fit for director Arnaud Desplechin, who has swung between documentary and fictional work throughout his career, and has never hesitated to take on a difficult project.

But turning one man’s analysis into filmed entertainment is an offbeat idea to say the least. The whole project is saved largely thanks to the subtext of ethnic discrimination that runs through the film, and two riveting central performances, which overcome a wobbly start to find emotional balance by the final reel.

The curtain opens on a ranch in Browning, Montana, where Jimmy Picard (Benicio Del Toro), a Blackfoot, lives with his sister and her family. He has returned from the war in France with debilitating headaches and bouts of blindness and hearing loss. As a veteran, he is taken for treatment to a progressive new medical facility in Topeka, Kansas, but after ruling out physical causes, the doctors uneasily diagnose him as a schizophrenic. Enter Georges Devereau (Mathieu Amalric), a bright-eyed little anthropologist called in by the enlightened medical staff to assess whether they just don’t understand Picard’s Indian psyche and behavior.