Special Opening Screening
Gloria Victoria
Recycling the elements of surrealism and cubism, this animated short focuses on the relationship between art and war. Propelled by the exalting “invasion” theme from Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony (No. 7), the film presents imagery of combat fronts and massacres, leading us from Dresden to Guernica, from the Spanish Civil War to Star Wars. It is at once a symphony that serves the war machine, that stirs the masses, and art that mourns the dead, voices its outrage and calls for peace.
Lost Action: Trace 3D
Experimental dance film about the revolving cycles of human conflict. An urgent act of remembrance inspired by fading legacies of WWI. Combining the raw physicality of athletic power with Theodore Ushev’s hauntingly distinct artwork, the film resonates universal themes of the shared effects of conflict, loss, and rescue we experience as we cycle infinitely through states of love and war. Inspired by choreographer Crystal Pite’s internationally-lauded 70-minute dance production.
Ora
ORA is a stunning meeting between the artistic worlds of choreographer José Navas and filmmaker Philippe Baylaucq. It is the first film to use 3D thermal imaging, producing visuals like none that have ever been seen before: the luminous variations of body heat seen on skin, bodies emitting a multitude of colours, a space filled with movement that transforms itself.
Wanted
The animated Slovenian Western Wanted combines in an ingenious way the traditional Slovenian countryside with the Wild West, with a hint of contemporary criticism.
Trgovinica za samomore / Le Magasin des suicides / The Suicide Shop
Script: Patrice Leconte, adapted from the book by Jean Teulé
Art Direction and Animation: Régis Vidal, Florian Thouret
Editing: Rodolphe Ploquin
Music: Etienne Perruchon
Cast: Bernard Alane, Isabelle Spade, Kacey Mottet Klein, Isabelle Giami, Laurent Gendron
Distribution in Slovenia: Demiurg
Imagine a shop that for generations has sold all the accoutrements of the perfect suicide.
This family business prospers in all its bleak misery, until the day it encounters true joie de vivre in the shape of the owners' younger son, Alan. What will become of The Suicide Shop in the face of Alan's relentless good cheer, optimism and determination to make the customers smile?
The film is based on Jean Teule's novel of the same name. Director Patrice Leconte comments on adapting it:
I took so much freedom with the book that I feared Jean Teulé would be perplexed, even offended. After reading the script, he called me: 'I like it very much because it is completely different and yet I find everything I have written. This film will be yours as much as mine, as if we had both written it'. It confirmed me in my conviction that I hadn't just illustrated Jean Teulé's book, but that I had adopted it as much as adapted it.