The Dreamer

“The Dreamer” (formerly “Du grand feu ne restent que les braises” / “From the big fire remain only the embers”) is released in French theaters in January 2024. Anaïs Tellenne’s first feature is a gift from heaven, simple and strong, humble and complex.

The characters that come to life before our eyes – Raphaël (Raphaël Thiéry) and Garance (Emmanuelle Devos) – are never as we expect, as if the clay that Anaïs Tellenne uses to animate them remains fresh forever. We too, spectators, want to be covered with this clay to enter this humanity free from the usual filters.

In 2023, “The Dreamer” was one of the discoveries of the Venice Film Festival, it was also awarded with the Audience Prize at Busan Festival in South Korea. And Anaïs and her screenplay were accompanied at Le Groupe Ouest in 2019 as part of the Annual Selection.

Synopsis

Raphaël, a one-eyed man, is the caretaker of a mansion where no one lives anymore. Soon to turn 60, he lives with his mother in a small house located at the entrance to the grounds of the stately manor. Between mole hunting, bagpipe practice and the occasional ride in the postwoman’s Kangoo van, the days resemble one another. But one stormy night Garance, the estate’s heiress, comes back to the family’s abode and now nothing will ever be the same again.