City of the sand dunes, Shanna Warocquier

Synopsis : This movie was created and shot during Autumn 2020. When France was going through its second lockdown and I, trying to figure out stories to be told. Most things were closed and streets empty but schools. This movie was shot in a High school next to the Mediterranean sea. As I was discovering an empty world, I was in the meantime, getting closer to another empty place : the sea. The place where the movie was shot is an old seaside resort town called the Grande-Motte. It was built in the 70’s with the idea of innocent summer moments and inspired by old myths. The place is important to me and the movie. It’s a mystical place because of its symbols and buildings made as sculptures. This movie is about wandering from a place to another - between the few places allowed during lockdown and limiting the teenager’s paths solely to their school environment. Giving to the Grande-Motte city the aspect of a post-apocalyptic one. Those teenagers wander, trying to find their own place into this city - and into their school. But mostly trying to find their own path into their life and this world - either too real, either too unfathomable. Through their teenage-hood they try to put words for their feelings. Those too confused and numerous, but also deep and scary that they have to go through. Trying to put words on the roads they’re trying to draw for their future, they wander in this city led by the Sun and surrounded by the sand dunes - those spreading Humans’ old stories and myths, into the sea. Many thanks to La Grande-Motte tourism office, Le Garden camping, La Merci High School, its students and teachers and many others who helped feeding with the last winter sun rays, this work.

Category : Dock-Fiction, Teenage Tale