A SECOND LIFE
LAURENT SLAMA | FRANCE | 2025 | 77 MIN | FRENCH EST + FST
LAURENT SLAMA | FRANCE | 2025 | 77 MIN | FRENCH EST + FST
Subtitles: English
Synopsis
A Second Life follows a day in the life of Elisabeth as she scrambles to meet Airbnb guests visiting Paris for the Summer Olympic Games. Battling both depression and hearing loss, she makes for a rather inhospitable host, but also meets a new and most unexpected friend at exactly the right moment in time. Agathe Rousselle and Alex Lawther glow as a platonic duo, riffing off of each other’s polar opposite personalities on screen. The urban rumblings of Paris are swathed in—and then stripped of—sound, plunging us deep into the protagonist’s plight of impaired hearing, as well as work visa precarity, with the constant feeling of uneven ground captured through handheld camera techniques and the crowded visual frames of a hurried city. A theme of escape permeates the film, whether by the removal of hearing aids, the contemplation of too many pills, or a spontaneous night out, blowing off steam with friends and beer. A sudden sapphic kiss under watchful eyes and a panic attack in the metro are just a few small moments of an eventful evening that culminate in poignant memories of connection alongside the Olympics opening ceremony.
Trailer
Filmmaker Bio
Laurent Slama is a self-taught filmmaker, producer and cinematographer born in 1989. His first feature, Paris Is Us (2019), was shot over four years amid real-life events and released worldwide on Netflix. He followed it with Roaring 20's (2022), filmed as a single continuous shot through the streets of Paris and awarded Best Cinematography and a Special Jury Mention at Tribeca. Slama also produces through his company 21juin cinéma and serves as cinematographer on his own films. A Second Life, shot during the Paris Olympic Games, is his latest feature.
Director's Statement
How do we connect with others in a modern world where authentic relationships feel out of reach? This is the question I explore in A Second Life. […] I focus on the often misunderstood and stigmatized experience of hearing loss. […] Through Elisabeth, who is exhausted by the isolation her disability imposes, I touch on a personal theme: the struggle to find one's place and identity in a world that doesn't easily accept difference. […] Anamorphic lenses highlight her isolation, while Vincent Cosson's intricate sound design allows the audience to hear the world as Elisabeth does.
Producer
Maxime Montagne, Laurent Slama
Writer
Laurent Slama
Cast
- Agathe Rousselle
- Alex Lawther
- Suzy Bemba
- Jonas Bachan
