Horizons - Awarded Films 2002 / Le souffle / France 2001
The protagonist of this black-and-white meditation on male rituals is fifteen-year-old David who is spending a few vacation days at his uncle’s dilapidated country place. His encounter with the primitive and rather traditional company of his uncle’s cronies initiates him into the rather shocking adult world. Special Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Award at the Venice IFF 2001.
Teenager David spends a few vacation days at his uncle’s ramshackle country place somewhere in the middle of the central French region of Limousin. David is a somewhat problematic kid from a small town who’s got no interests of his own. He thinks this vacation will finally give him the opportunity to try out a bit of freedom, but the new environment introduces him into some brutally fascinating experiences. Encountering the primitive and rather traditional company of his uncle’s cronies initiates him into the rather shocking adult world, a place that up to now only seemed an imaginary locus of undefined promise. David takes the opportunity of getting drunk for the first time in his life – and defiantly sets out for the sunny countryside in order to yield to his desire to taste the dark side of his animal nature. This black-and-white meditation on male rituals makes the most of nonactors, above all Pierre-Louis Bonnetblanc in the lead. Special Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Award at the Venice IFF 2001.
80 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Damien Odoul
/ Screenplay Damien Odoul
/ Dir. of Photography Pascale Granel
/ Editor Gwénola Heaulme
/ Producer Gérard Lacroix
/ Production Morgane Production
/ Cast Pierre-Louis Bonnetblanc, Dominique Chevallier, Maxime Dalbrut, Jean-Claude Lecante, Jean Milord
Damien Odoul (b. 1968, Le Puy, France) toured through Europe and Asia at age sixteen, published his first poetry collection at nineteen and at twenty directed his first short film, La douce, screened at festivals in Orléans, Bastia and Moscow. After an unfinished project, Tchécoslovaquie 68/69, he shot the award-winning short A l’ouest de l’orient (1990). Other short films followed: Tob (1991-94), Elegeia (1995), Sans monde (2000) and Magik (2001); in 1992 he made the poetic made-for-TV movie Morasseix. Last year he successfully debuted with Deep Breath, which collected the FIPRESCI and Special Jury Prizes at the Venice IFF.
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