The film marked the re-discovery of a long forgotten French writer, Leo Malet, and introduced his character Nestor Burma to a new generation of mystery fans.

[citation needed] The film received eight César Award nominations, winning Best Picture, Best Actor (Philippe Léotard), and Best Actress (Nathalie Baye).

Disenchanted with Hollywood and the studio system, Swaim returned to France where he set up a company to develop European projects for American producers.

The 19th century adventure drama, shot in Studio 5 at Cinecittà in Rome and in the southern desert of Morocco, starred Tchéky Karyo, Jean Rochefort, Anna Galiena and Fernando Rey.

In 2001, Gerard Mortier, director of the Salzburg Festival, asked Swaim to direct the Leoš Janáček opera, Jenůfa with Hildegard Behrens and Karita Mattila, and with John Eliot Gardiner conducting.

The film, starring Daniel Auteuil, Frédéric Diefenthal and Lorant Deutsch, won the Grand Prix du Festival de Saint-Malo that year.

Aside from writing, directing and producing, Swaim has acted in several films, including John Landis's Spies Like Us, Caroline Huppert's J'ai Deux Amours, James Ivory's A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, and Florence Quentin's Ole, starring Gérard Depardieu and Gad Elmaleh.

The workshops were designed to give an international profile and resonance to selected French and European projects, allowing them to reach a variety of audiences in a more direct way.

In the early 2000s, Swaim was writing his next feature film, Pigalle-Barbès (provisional title), a thriller that takes place in Paris during the Algerian War.