White Skin

Colour, 35 mm
Canada, 2004, 89 min
Section: Focus on Canadian Films
Oficiální stránky: www.lapeaublanche.com

Synopsis

Montreal. Student Thierry wants to celebrate his birthday with his roommate, a Haitian named Henri, by romping with a couple of call girls they chance to meet at a bar. Once in the sack, Henri’s partner brutally attacks him and runs away. The friends assume that it was a racially motivated attack, but the truth is far more horrifying. Soon after, Thierry meets a mysterious redhead, music student Claire, and he recognizes in her sister the unknown assailant. While the more suspicious Henri delves into David Cronenberg videos and studies web pages about vampires, Thierry refuses to believe that the family of his pale skinned love is not quite on the up and up. Inspired by Joël Champetier’s novel (he also cowrote the screenplay), this sophisticated movie tweaks the banal ‘boy meets girl’ genre into an intricate thriller spiced with social allegory and gothic horror. At the Toronto IFF it took the City of Toronto Prize for Best Debut and the Claude Jutra Prize for Best Debut at the Genie Awards.

About the director

Daniel Roby (b. 1970, Montreal) studied film at Montreal´s Concordia University and the University of Southern California. He gained experience as a cameraman (working, for example, with Michel Jetté on Hochelaga, 2000). In 1995 he began shooting short films produced by his own company Zone Film (originally named La Mafia). He worked on the production of the shorts Lila (2001, dir. Robin Aubert), which Quebec´s Association of Film Critics awarded as the best title of the year, and Nos bras meurtris vous tendent le flambeau, the first Canadian fiction to be shot entirely in HD and projected onto 35 mm. In 2001 he directed his first short, Quelques instants de la vie d´une fraise. White Skin is his feature film directorial debut.