La Ligne Blanche

Olivier Torres has devoted himself to writing and directing since 1998. His first short, Un peu de temps réel, was screened in a number of festivals in France and internationally, and won the best first film award. His previous film, La nuit sera longue, which was selected in Locarno in the Filmmakers of the Present section, won the Grand Prix of the Belfort Festival and the Prix Jean Vigo in 2004. Alongside writing, he has continued a career as a scriptwriter. La ligne blanche is his first feature."Immediately, the character of Jean shines by his absence. When his father dies, it is his young son Sylvain who is at the old man's bedside. It is due to the death of his father that he finally chooses to deals with the demands of parenthood. He and his son begin the heavy task of recognition, the search for mutual understanding. From the city to the open spaces of Provence, Jean and his son will have to fill in the gaps in a relationship that has all too often been lacking... Before living together, trying, simply, to inhabit this relationship where nothing can be taken for granted. It is a question of shortening distances, closing the gap between these still foreign bodies. Manufacturing closeness between a father and his son. A master in the art of shirking his responsibilities, Jean makes do as best he can with those around him. He is charming, dances well and through his fallacious extravagance, his excesses and his "folly", embodies everything which is forbidden to Sylvain. He is constantly manoeuvring immediate reality. And yet, distance is everywhere for this man who constantly abandoning others..." (O. Torres).