The Night Next Door

Muriel Montini / France / 2024 / International Premiere / 52 min.

synopsis

Forest observation in negative colours captures the night life of wildlife out of the sight of man, but within his earshot. An anthropocentric element creeps into the natural still life in the form of noise from a nearby battle line. The night vision camera transforms the forest animals into fantasy creatures with glowing eyes and their home into a mythical space of love and war. Both, according to Jean-Luc Godard, exist side by side, like the quietly falling snow and bomb explosions, or the lovers' phone call and Putin's voice from hell. A poetic post-apocalyptic purgatory and homage to dead creators, it represents the eerie adjacency of life and death.

“Jean-Luc Godard is dead. The only two subjects he ever dealt with were love and war, which were intertwined more firmly than he wished for them to be.”

biography

Muriel Montini lives and works in France. She studied film and has exhibited in France, Italy, Spain, Brazil and the USA. Her works include the features Cordelia, Adieu mon général, the shorts Alice and Les Jeux d'enfants.