Rotterdam Award-Winner Morgane Dziurla-Petit Proves, Once Again, That ‘Excess Will Save Us’
05.02.2022 - 23:25
/ variety.com
Marta Balaga In “Excess Will Save Us” – named this week joint winner of Rotterdam Film Festival’s Special Jury Award – Morgane Dziurla-Petit returns to Villereau, a village in the north of France where nothing ever happens. Or, according to some of the locals, everything does – from freak accidents to terrorist scares and the curious case of disappearing pigeons.“Laughter is what brought me to making this film. It’s the way we communicate with each other in my family and in the village.
Whatever we do, there is always this humor,” the Sweden-based director tells Variety after the online awards ceremony.“I started with all the stories that intrigued me and yes, made me laugh, but I wasn’t trying to make a ‘funny’ film. I liked the idea of a comedy that makes you sad or a drama that makes you laugh.” Expanding her 2019 short of the same name, and once again asking her family to participate, she decided to reference it in the hybrid film, with the protagonists celebrating its premiere at Clermont-Ferrand.“This short really brought us together. For my father, it was also his way out.
Despite his age, he would feel like a teenager sometimes, just stuck in this place. Thanks to the film, he understood there was hope for him too, in a way. It made him happy,” she says.
But as her own circumstances changed over the years, she created an alter ego to represent her old self, played by Kim Truong.“I just didn’t feel like that kid who tries to escape anymore. I was a director, choosing to be there. That was a huge difference,” she adds.“After my parents split, I would still visit the village.
I didn’t know what to do there, I just wanted out. Now, I started to see it in a new way and I have developed a huge love for it. I really
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