Three men squat in a building in the City of Light. None of them is from there originally. Yet, they share quite a bit. Bienvenue à Paris Paris!
That is the title of the first fiction feature from Belgian documentary filmmaker Isabelle Tollenaere (Battles, Victoria), a poetic and cinematic exploration of displacement and home. It will world premiere on Tuesday, July 7, in the Proxima competition lineup of the 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF).
The three men at the center of the film are Yi-En from China, Junior from Congo, and Hamzah from Palestine. They share their Spartan apartment, including a fish, and a life in undocumented exile.
“An allegory of searching, loss, displacement, and the discovery of new meanings and commonalities” is how the KVIFF website describes the movie. And it highlights that it is “set in one of Europe’s great cities and in a replica of Paris built in China – a metaphor for the immigrants’ old dream of life in a new home and its gradual transformation into a new dream about their old home.”
The filmmaker wrote, directed and also edited Paris Paris, which comes from producers Bo de Group and Hans Everaert of Menuetto. Thomas Verijke handled the cinematography for the movie, whose cast is made up of non-professional actors. Not that you could tell! Square Eyes is handling international sales on the film.
Curious!? Well, you are in luck! THR can now exclusively premiere the trailer for Paris Paris. “In the beginning…” – that is how the teaser starts off. And it will give you a first feel for the sights, the sounds, the colors and the humor that await you if you decide to embark on the 79-minute journey that is Paris Paris.
