CETTE MAISON

Director Miryam Charles’ dreamlike, haunting first feature begins with a real-life personal tragedy – the hanging of her 14-year-old cousin, Tessa, in her bedroom, an act originally ruled suicide but later determined to be homicide, still unsolved – and uses that to explore events real and unimagined, as well as futures unlived. Shot in 16mm, the film weaves between documentary and hallucination, real locations and theatrical sets, and even an imaginary landscape of Haiti, as she recounts her family’s migration to Quebec. Tessa reappears, forever 14, speaking with her mother in the present day, and this astonishing film turns into its own kind of ghost story. With this debut, Charles makes her mark as a filmmaker to watch in the future. ~SM