The Island
Rosa and her friends have decided to spend the night on “the island”, a stretch of beach that has become their realm. It’s the last night of the summer, they’re turning eighteen, the time to live it all. To write and rehearse this film, Damien Manivel brought together seven teenagers in Brittany, in the summer of 2022. Due to lack of funding, the filming planned for the following month had to be canceled and the project abandoned. However, today, the island exists, with Rosa, her friends, the last night of summer, the time to live it all.
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The Island tells us a story, including how the story takes shape and turns into a movie. The rehearsal is put in the film, showing that the moment the actors prepare to get their bodies and emotions to craft a story can be a film's theme and a structure to form emotions. Damien Manivel, throughout his former projects, including Isadora's Children (2019, JEONJU Cinema Project film that earned him Best Director Award for the International Competition section in Locarno International Film) and Magdala (2022), proved that preexisting conventions of filmmaking can never constrain his art world. This time, he uses narrative and formal elements to display robust concentration while a piece of writing transforms into a single narrative film. The Island is a film that can also be an essay on cinema. (Sung MOON)
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Cosimo SANTORO⎜cs@theopenreel.com
Damien MANIVEL
