Iles Flottantes

Colour, 35mm
The Netherlands, 2000, 80 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Iles flottantes or ‘floating isles’ is the name of a well-known French dessert: meringue drizzled with vanilla cream. The movie’s title symbolically relates to three friends, Kaat, Sasha and Isa, who are drifting freely along the current of life. They live their lives with an amusingly ironic confidence, but now that they are approaching thirty the realisation comes that everything in life is far from being just a joke. Kaat, who quit school and has lived for several years now with her partner Max moves out on him unexpectedly. No one knows why and she doesn’t want to explain to anyone that she cheated on him and is pregnant, undoubtedly by someone else. Sasha, who works for a Russian export firm in Rotterdam, also has problems with her partner. Peer is an ex-junkie, jealous and violent, who doesn’t want to accept the fact that Sasha doesn’t care about him any longer. Isa is a talented though unknown artist whose boyfriend, Christophe, doesn’t take her too seriously. Love complications force each of the three young women to make an important life decision. What was sweet becomes bitter and at thirty it’s no longer possible to continue living as they once did.

About the director

Nanouk Leopold (b. 1968, Rotterdam) was first involved in design before beginning studies at the Dutch Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam in 1994. Her, graduation film, Weekend, was awarded at the Dutch Film Festival and won the Kodak Prize at the festival in Munich. She has worked as writer and director on several short films, and then wrote for the film magazine Skrien and the television show Stardust. Illes flottantes, a film shot from her own script, is her feature debut.