Morgane Dziurla-Petit: “I wanted the viewer to feel what I feel when I go there”

Excess will save us, the feature film directed and written by Morgane Dziurla-Petit, won the Special Jury Prize at the Rotterdam Festival. It premiered on 25 October in the Meeting Point section of the 67th Seminci.

The French filmmaker was in charge of presenting her latest film. “My initial idea was to make a series of short films, but the producer recommended that I make a feature film,” explained Dziurla-Petit.

A young film director returns to her family’s village after a terrorist alert is triggered. As she films her family members in their power dynamic, she comes to realise that they are more connected to this event than she originally thought. Through the making of a short documentary, he gets closer to his 62-year-old father Patrick and his 17-year-old cousin Faustine, who share the same dream: to leave the village.

“I wanted the viewer to feel what I feel when I go there. My intention was to make the audience wonder if what they were seeing was true or not,” said Morgane Dziurla-Petit.

Happy New Year, Jim

The nine-minute short film Happy New Year, Jim was also screened. The film is directed by Italian Andrea Gatopoulos, who is also a screenwriter, director of photography, editor and producer.

The short film is set on New Year’s Eve. Jim and Morten spend the evening playing video games, as they do every day. But tonight Morten is uncomfortable.