Synopsis

Claire (Kayije Kagame), a businesswoman promoting a new skyscraper office in La Défense, faces increasing scrutiny and isolation. The cold, grey offices amplify her loneliness, driving vivid dreams of setting the tower ablaze.

​

Festivals & screenings

World premiere : IFFR 2024 - Tiger Shorts Competition, Netherlands

BFMAF Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, UK

Centre Pompidou - in conversation with Alice Diop, France

BAFICI - International Competition, Argentina

Shanghai Int. Film Festival - International Competition, China

BlackStar Film Festival, International Short Fiction Competition, US

ArtExplora Festival, France

Air de Paris, France

Festival En temps réel, France

Guanajuato Int. Film Festival - Official Competition, Mexico

Murf/Murw Film Festival, Netherlands

Bucharest Int. Experimental Film Festival - Official Competition, Romania

Chicago Int. Film Festival, US

Film Africa, London, UK

Interseccion Film Festival, Spain

TATE Britain - 'History Reverberates' screening programme, UK

New Horizons Film Festival, Poland

​

Press kit

 

Written and directed by Valentin Noujaïm

​

Production : Iliade et films - Manon Messiant

Cinematography : Alex Brack

Sound : John Flindt Hussein, Thibaut Sichet, Maxime Roy

Editing : Valentin Noujaïm

Music : Space Afrika

VFX : Nicolas Pirus

Production design: Neal Hoey

Starring : Kayije Kagame as Claire

​

Filmmaker's bio

Valentin Noujaïm (born in 1991, Franco-Lebanese) graduated from the Screenwriting Department of La Fémis in Paris and was a guest student at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany. Noujaïm's work focuses on three axes: improvised lives, compressed lives, and extinguished lives. He creates marginal and strange characters in fantasized universes while relying on format research, blending 16mm film, archives, digital, and special effects.

​

His films have been selected for festivals such as CPH:DOX, Visions du Réel, International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), DocLisboa, BAFICI, DokuFest, BlackStar Film Festival, and Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur. Additionally, his work has been featured in several group exhibitions: Triennale de Nîmes (2024), Museo Madre (2024), Magasins Généraux (2023), CNAC Magasin (2022), Salon de Montrouge (2022), Galerie Air de Paris (2022), Galerie Exo Exo (2022), Saatchi Gallery (2021), among others. His works are found in the collections of CNAP, FRAC Bretagne, and Lafayette Anticipations. Valentin Noujaïm will have his first institutional solo show in 2025 and is currently working on his first feature.

​