24/08/2023 - The new work by the French filmmaker is now selected in San Sebastián's Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, after having world-premiered at FIDMarseille

Rosa and her gang have decided to spend the night on “the island”, a stretch of beach that has become their kingdom. It’s the last evening of the summer, the summer of our eighteenth birthdays, the time to experience everything, the time to say goodbye.

This is the synopsis of The Island [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the new film by French director Damien Manivel, which has been selected for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera programme of the 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival, which will unspool from 22 to 30 September, after having world-premiered at the 34th FIDMarseille.

After The Night I Swam [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Damien Manivel, Kohei Igara…
film profile] (screened in Venice’s Orizzonti section in 2017), Isadora’s Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Damien Manivel
film profile] (awarded the Leopard for Best Director in Locarno 2019) and Magdala [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Damien Manivel
film profile] (screened in Cannes’ ACID section in 2022), to name just three of his works, the filmmaker drills down even deeper and explores another horizon in this film, which won a Special Mention in FIDMarseille's national competition, as well as dominating the festival’s Ciné+ competition.

In the words of Manivel, "the island is the memory of Rosa, who spends her last party with her group of friends, it's the end of her adolescence. We hang on her face and relive the gestures and words that marked her during this last night. It is also a document on seven young actors who try, thanks to their imagination, to give birth to a film. And it is the portrait of a film crew, the one that has accompanied me for years and whose generous presence the film records. It's a very personal film for which I wanted to invent a cinematographic form where the superposition of images and sounds creates this feeling of eternity and nostalgia specific to adolescence and film making."

The Island is produced by MLD Films and sold worldwide by The Open Reel, with distribution in French cinemas set to unfold as of 27 March 2024 courtesy of Météore Films.

Check out our exclusive poster below:

(Translated from Spanish)