LAND LEGS / Tempête

 

North American Premiere • Drama • France, 2016

DCP • 2.35 • Dolby • Color • 89 min

Directed by: Samuel Collardey

Written by: Samuel Collardey, Catherine Paillé

Cinematography: Samuel Collardey

Film Editing: Julien Lacheray

Original Score: Vincent Girault

Produced by: Grégoire Debailly (Geko Films)

Cast: Dominique Leborne (Dom), Matteo Leborne (Matteo), Mailys Leborne (Mailys), Vincent Bessonnet (Vincent) 

International Sales: Stray Dogs

 

When we first meet 36-year-old Dom in a pub listening to old sea shanties, it’s not immediately clear if he’s an actor playing a fisherman, or a fisherman re-enacting the story of his life. Dominique Leborne won the Best Actor Award in the Venice Horizons sidebar for his portrayal of himself – a divorced father of two trying to hold his family together at all costs. Usually, Dom is out on fishing vessels for months at a time, but when his daughter Mailys (Mailys Leborne) turns up pregnant, social services threatens to take custody of the kids unless he can spend more time with them. Dom has only known a life at sea, so his best shot at making his own hours is to get a boat of his own. But without any capital, his decision to stop working for others precipitates a downward spiral that brings the family to the brink of homelessness. This unassuming docudrama starring a trio of nonprofessional actors manages to blend just enough reality and fiction to get the best of both.

The third time’s a charm for writer/director Samuel Collardey. Since his first feature, the Prix Louis Delluc-winning Apprentice (2008), Collardey has been honing his naturalistic docu-fiction approach. For his second film, Little Lion (COLCOA 2013), Collardey felt that his style might benefit from a little more fiction and story elements. But when the boy whose story he wanted to tell refused to play himself, Collardey was forced to use an actor, and his original impetus for the film was lost. Collardey was drawn to the world of fisherman, but it was his long-time screenwriting partner Catherine Paillé who first met Dominique Leborne on a short film she was shooting several years earlier. Before filming, Collardey spent nearly a year observing Dom. He slept on Dom’s sofa, went to sea with him. At that time, Dom’s daughter Mailys was estranged from her father, and Collardy convinced her to portray herself in the film as a way of spending more time with him. Trained as a cinematographer, Collardey’s camera perfectly captures the melancholy grays of Sables d'Olonne.

 

QUOTES:

“…both moving and unpretentious.”

– Bénédicte Prot CINEUROPA

“He (Dominique Leborne) has a quiet sort of charisma that makes him rather exciting to watch.”

– Benjamin Rendall VFF Film Review