This year's DOCU/YOUTH selection is set against vibrant backdrops from different parts of the world – from cosy northern France to the boundless Amazon jungle, from tranquil Canadian lakes to Irish grasslands and cold Atlantic beaches – and immerses us in warm coming-of-age stories. Each film in its own way tells the story of the fragility of childhood and the weight of the legacy we receive from our families as we grow up, both willingly and against our will.
Excess Will Save Us by Morgane Dziurla-Petit is a tragicomedy about the nature of family ties and the fragility of individualism. With warmth and humour, the director observes her small home village of Villereau in northern France: the fears that globalisation has brought to the closed world of a small village, and the skeletons in the family closet that no-one can escape. Well, almost nobody, because the young filmmaker, who appears in the film and directs its hybrid creation, has left her family in search of herself. She returns to make a short film about a mysterious tragic event and reveals her family secrets to the festival audience – but her adventure does not end there. The director continues to film her family's story, blending reality and imagination to reveal the beauty and absurdity of her family's small, fascinating life.
Shirampari: Legacies of the River by Lucía Florez observes the life of another family from the Peruvian nation of Ashéninka, or more exactly, the life of a boy who learns from his father the most important skill a man must know — the art of catching a giant catfish in the river. The father teaches him with patience and tenderness, watching the boy tie his first successful hooks, dive into the murky depths of the waters, and finally meet the expectations of his small community.
A warm relationship between male family members is also the subject of Oasis, the debut film by Canadian director Justine Martin. She tries to capture the fragile bond between twin brothers leaving the safe oasis of what is probably the last summer of their childhood. Both are gradually becoming aware of the inevitability of growing up, which inexorably increases the distance between Raphaël, who spends most of his time alone because of his intellectual disability, and Rémi, who now mostly seeks the noisy company of his peers.
In Ramboy, by Matthias Joulaud and Lucien Roux, we are immersed in a very different summer on the west coast of Ireland, where a man wants to pass on the skills of shepherding to his grandson while he still can. Although Cian would rather sleep until midday and play football with his friends than learn how to herd sheep with a shepherd dog, shear the wool, cut off the rams' horns and lay them on their backs, he gradually learns the craft and makes his grandfather proud. With gentle humour and tenderness, the filmmakers manage to convey the uncertainty and kindness with which the boy embraces the trade he has inherited and his future, capturing a sincere bond between grandson and grandfather.
The protagonists of the DOCU/YOUTH 2023 films are learning how to be adults while remaining part of their families, communities and the fragile and uncertain world.
