"Summer time. A teenage boy and girl have their first date in a park. Hesitant and shy at first, they soon discover each other, get closer as they wander, and end up falling in love. But as the sun goes down, it is time to part… And a dark night begins."
Lush and mysterious, Damien Manivel's beguiling second feature, a deceptively modest work influenced equally by Linklater as Straub-Hulliet, is a shapeshifter in the truest sense. What begins as an idyll romance between two innocent teens gradually morphs into a metaphysical reckoning as identities blur and innocence is lost under the spell of a crescent moon.
A beautiful labyrinth of emotion.
- Luc Chessel, Libération
Manivel’s directing enchants.
- Le Figaro
Plays like a remake of Before Sunrise directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul or the late Manoel de Oliveira, offering up a shred of story filled with touches of humor and bizarre occurrences that take place in some sort of dreamlike realm.
- Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
Infused with a kind of 'realist surrealism,' a simple magic evoked through static shots reminiscent of the work of Pedro Costa or, going back further, Robert Bresson. In the end, its whimsical notions turn out to be as appealing as they are intriguing.
- David Gonzales, Cineuropa
(Available to download after screening date)