The Night and the Child

Sacha, 12, is a solo figure skater. He could become a champion but the only thing he has in mind is dancing on the ice with Rebecca.

The poetic and political portrait of a working-class suburb undergoing transformation, "De Cendres et de Braises" invites us to listen to the words of the inhabitants of the Mureaux housing project, near the Renault-Flins factory. Whether they are gentle, rebellious, or sung at the foot of the project's tower blocks, at the factory entrance, or beside a fire, these words take us through the night until a new day rises.

Award-winning Lithuanian documentary filmmaker Vytautas Puidokas’s new film tells the story of a rehabilitation centre on an abandoned farm. It’s a refuge for troubled recovering addicts and former prisoners hoping for one last chance at a normal life. It is run by Žanas, a former addict who has turned his life around through nature and religion. One day, a 14-year-old boy named Matas joins the farm, seeking solace from his own childhood trauma. Together they begin to confront his past.

Federico and his brother Simon live their teenage years to the fullest, until the day Simon dies by falling from a balcony at a party. While his family falls to pieces before his eyes, Federico tries to live a normal life during his final weeks of school. Unable to mourn, he starts to grow closer to Laura, his dead brother’s girlfriend and seems to find comfort in her.

Ayi comes from a rural area of Eastern China and doesn’t have the residential permit that would allow her to work in Shanghai. Yet, she has been cooking in the streets for twenty years, in an old neighbourhood soon to be demolished. The film unveils the chaos of an ultra-modern city aiming to wipe out so-called substandard practices and to deport an unwanted population.

Igor is 33 years old, he has been living for 5 years in a converted truck in his native Vosges. His ambition is to be self-sufficient thanks to his vegetable garden and the few bargains he makes at night in the garbage cans of DIY hypermarkets. Anticonsumerist, respectful of nature and of the people he lives with, Igor is a pure heart. Very attached to his freedom, he does not militate. But sometimes, he would like to share his existence with others, sometimes he thinks about the future...