Sweetie

In 2020, Zoé Filloux directed her first film Wadi Jhannam, which won the Médiapart Public Choice Award at Cinéma du Réel. In Sweetie, Zoé once again films her close ones, this time focusing on their working environment. 

A word from the selection committee:
Zoé Filloux paints the portrait of her friend Donna and the performers of a Parisian erotic cabaret, as they prepare and rehearse their striptease acts. There is something profoundly right in the way the director films the bodies – never sexualised, never essentialised – even though the entire business of the venue rests on the spectacle of the female body. By skilfully embracing the constraints of reality and choosing to confine the film to the narrow backstage corridors of the cabaret, the film never steps beyond the curtain. We always keep on the side of the performers, never among the clients who watch and fantasise; effectively shutting out any trace of voyeurism. The only window to the outside lies in the surveillance monitor that broadcasts in real time the room where the shows take place, thus revealing the blurred silhouettes of the spectators. The film triumphs through this inversion - it is we who spy on the passing clients, without ever allowing them to become characters. 

Rose Hirgorom