New Denmark

Colour, HD CAM
Canada, 2009, 72 min
WP – World premiere
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

During a long and cloudy summer, Carla spends her time working, taking care of the house, and looking for her missing sister. Her friends and a stranger help her look, and Carla tries to cope with the new and unwanted situation that has beset her. From the outside, nothing has happened in her everyday life. The banality of the activities that Carla performs from day to day contrast with the intensity of emotion she keeps inside herself. The simpler the plot of a Rafaël Ouellet movie, the more intensely the director is able to transfer his protagonists’ unrest onto the viewer and to mediate a look into their emotionally pulsing souls. The film’s original visual aspect aids him in this, as does the sensitive, fluid camera which follows the heroine almost step by step. This third film by an unconventional Québecois director will be presented at Karlovy Vary as a world premiere.

About the director

Rafaël Ouellet (b. 1974, Degelis, Quebec) is a self-taught director whose education focused on radio and television. He makes movies in a highly independent fashion with the same small crew from his hometown. For his feature debut Le cèdre penché (2007) he contributed as screenwriter, director, editor, and producer. His second feature, Derrière moi, followed in 2008, and he completed New Denmark in 2009. All of his films have been well received at international festivals, including his short works: I Mokret (Dans le noir, 2003), Przeprowadzka (2003), Film dans un sauna (2003), Face B (2004), and Dans l’est (2005).