La Vie de château
Frédérique Devillez
2007 - 55 min - DV Cam & 16 mm - Couleur - France

Life at the "Petit Château" is about waiting. At the windows, glances and gestures hang immobile. In the corridors, shadows pass, and a thousand languages resonate. Waiting for a few months, or maybe years, changes the château into a prison of the mind. In this unexpectedly-named halfway house, asylum-seekers from all over the world kill time waiting to find out if their requests will be accepted.
Like in "The Arabian Nights", time flies by as the tale is told. Even the name of the Petit Château (literally "Little Castle") conjures up tales, a myriad of possibilities, grinding humour. How can we find for each person the individuality of a story, and, beyond the refugee, rediscover the person? Together, Frédérique Devillez and the Petit Chateau occupants make a pact of fiction: a game, a step back from themselves, their dreams and desires. Thus the château is inhabited, little by little, by a princess in white, a magnanimous king,...