Xavier Demoulin

A self-taught filmmaker, Xavier first made experimental films on Super 8, then moved on to producing short films dealing with the difficult transition to adulthood.
“L’Étang” tells the story of three siblings, playing daily in a forest, until the day their deepest nature is revealed in the woods, leading them to share a dark secret. Then “Becs et ongles”, presented at numerous festivals and broadcast on Canal+, follows the trajectory of a young woman plunged against her will into the harsh world of cockfighting, to pay off her father’s debts and learn to mourn the past.

At the same time programmer, screenwriter and reader, Xavier continues to question the role of violence in society, the weight of social and family heritage, and their toxicity, through short-film projects featuring characters grappling with their environments, including “Entends tu le tonerre?”, “Rêve de serpent” and “Protocole commotion”.

“L’Aven” is his first feature-length project, and is the winner of the Groupe Ouest Annual Selection.

L’Aven

Sélection Annuelle 2024

It’s late summer, and every day, 19-year-old Anaïs wanders tirelessly through the impenetrable Cévennes forest, IGN map in hand, singing 2010s hits in yoghurt. To counter her loneliness, she says everything she thinks out loud. Anaïs explores every inch of the undergrowth, marking her passage with small pebbles erected in mounds.
Binoculars in hand, Sabrina, the forest ranger, watches over her from a distance, helping her in her search and regularly providing her with provisions. Every day, more and more, the forest is covered with golden leaves, inexorably heralding the arrival of the bad season. Anaïs fears she’ll run out of time before she can find him. One day, she comes across Enzo, a 17-year-old boy who has been beaten up and is taking refuge in the woods. Anaïs decides to help him. The two are very different, but they get on well together, and Enzo ends up lending her a helping hand. But he hides a dark past, and his escape gradually threatens Anaïs’ search for him…