alien.doc

The film alien.doc is an integral part of L’Alien project.

November 2018, reports of UFOs arouse the curiosity of Sabine Antoine, an experienced ufologist. While she disappears during her investigation in Ireland, pupils in a small village in the south of France begin a surprising workshop. Led to follow in the footsteps of the ufologist and soon of a stranger from outer space, the children, through their involvement and authenticity, question us about our duty to welcome others.


Exctract translated from the synopsis of alien.doc

In my film, I would like to play with the aesthetics of crime magazines. My editing will combine footage of events that took place in the classroom and interviews with the children with interviews with the actors playing their characters. The actors will speak to the camera as if they were commenting on the case a year later. Among those interviewed will be Sabine the ufologist, of course, but also her partner Gérald, the teacher, the village mayor and myself.

At two-thirds of the film, the role-play comes to an abrupt end. The day after visiting the classroom, the alien is arrested for not being able to produce his papers. The pupils, who had developed a strong empathy for him, cannot bear this idea. Together with the teacher, we decide to set the record straight, which leads to a series of filmed interviews in which I try to make the pupils aware of the role play.

From this revelation onwards, the film shifts from mockumentary to documentary and shows that, despite the end of the illusion, the students continue to engage in role-play by getting involved in defending the alien’s rights as an asylum seeker.

While the theme of immigration underpins the story of the alien, the film focuses on the blend of real and fictional elements that make up the role-playing game. Used here as a mise en abyme, the mockumentary genre will allow viewers to experience this confusion in order to better understand how the children accepted the obvious flaws in this story, more out of a desire to believe than out of naivety. The film will thus reflect the audience back to itself, choosing to accept the deception of the mockumentary through a pact of interpretation made with the director.

Extract translated from the statement of intent