Sylvie Ballyot

Sylvie Ballyot graduated from La Fémis. Her films—fiction, documentaries, and personal journals—explore themes that are close to her heart, such as desire, identity, and family relationships. Among them, Love and Words, a documentary filmed in Yemen, and Alice and Like Father, Like Daughter, a medium-length and a short film which were highly successful at festivals.

She came to Le Groupe Ouest to work on her feature film Back Home.

Back Home

Annual Selection 2012

My name is Judith. I’m 18 years old. He calls me “idiot” or “good-for-nothing,” with his lousy English accent. I speak better than he does, but I deliberately speak poorly so he’ll leave me alone. I never understood what happened between him, my grandfather, and my mother, but I’ve never seen such hatred for each other as theirs —it’s as if they enjoy it. But I adore my mother, Alice. She allowed me to attend a regular school, even though doctors said I was good-for-nothing, barely capable of surviving, and definitely incapable of putting a sentence together. Makes you wonder who the real idiots are…