Camping du Lac

In her first feature, Éléonore Saintagnan draws on the mythological tales of rural France to craft an ecological fable where the imaginary permeates the real. Narrated in a novelistic first-person voiceover, the story begins when Éléonore—played by the director herself—sets out on the road, before her car breaks down in the middle of Brittany. She finds refuge at a lakeside campsite, home to both a secluded community and a miraculous fish, said to have lived in the lake since Biblical times. Fascinated by this tale and by the eccentric inhabitants, she begins to observe them and in so doing develops a new understanding of the world around her. But little by little, the peaceful lakeside atmosphere is disturbed when the fish becomes a tourist attraction. Working mainly with non-actors and using real locations, Saintagnan transforms reality into a playground of fantasy and storytelling, where temporalities and narratives both personal and collective intertwine. With tenderness, zany humor and a penchant for the absurd, CAMPING DU LAC drinks in the magic of things— including a shimmering folk musician—while casting a concerned eye on capitalist greed and our relationship to nature. (Nepheli Gambade)

In the presence of Éléonore Saintagnan.

Éléonore Saintagnan: LES PETITES PERSONNES (2003, K), UN FILM ABÉCÉDAIRE (2010, K), LES MALCHANCEUX (2012, K), JOHANNA (2012, K), L’ESPRIT DE LA ROCHE (2015, K), LES BÊTES SAUVAGES (2015, K), UNE FILLE D’OUESSANT (2018, K), LA GRANDE NOUVELLE (2019, K)