Slalom

"As a teenager, I was sexually abused in sports. Like many victims, I internalized it for many years. I built my professional life around creation and I blossomed through photography, drawing, theater and cinema. I never thought that my first feature film would necessarily talk about what was buried deep inside of me. However, the need for denunciation made its way to finally hatch on the benches of the FÉMIS where I wrote the first lines of this screenplay. But there again, I did not allow myself to affirm the autobiographical aspect of the project. Because my true story was not in skiing. Lyz is not me, nor her family mine, nor Fred my aggressor. But the film is irrigated by my personal history. " - Charlène Favier

Slalom marks Charlène Favier's directorial debut after multiple short films (Free Fall (2012), Omessa (2015), Amir and Lea (2017) and Odol Gorri (2018)). By finding inspiration in the sexual violence she herself has suffered, her film is a means of exorcising her own demons. She was able to bring to life a scenario that she co-wrote not inspired by her own personal experience in the world of alpine skiing, but in a more universal way in the fact that certain sports environments deserve to be better controlled to avoid such reprehensible acts.

Director Charlène Favier's way of apprehending without embellishment all the violence that emanates from an ex-champion who has become a coach with questionable morals and who abuses his position in a prestigious ski-study section of the Bourg-Saint-Maurice high school, the film confronts us with the reality of a sporting universe in which young champions must not only undergo difficult training but also sexual abuse without really being able to face the repeated assaults of his coach at the beginning.

Winner of the Ornano-Valenti prize at the Deauville American Film Festival, Slalom is the perfect fusion of a film about the world of ski competitions, perfectly filmed and revealing the sensation of speed and permanent danger, but also the passionate drama of a young high school student under the influence of her coach. By playing on both sides, director Charlène Favier does not neglect the psychology of the characters and benefits from the presence of actor Jérémie Renier in the role of the sports coach and the young actress Noée Abita (Ava (2017), Le grand bain (2018)).

Shot in a natural setting and benefiting from an evening photograph, Slalom easily stands out as one of the good surprises of the Deauville American Film Festival in which each year an independent French film is highlighted. Slalom once again highlights the many abuses that are constantly feeding the press on moral and sexual harassment in the sports world. Violent, realistic and perfectly mastered, Charlène Favier's first film stands out as a film to be discovered urgently and which will hopefully allow some people to take the courage to express themselves.

Slalom
Directed by Charlène Favier
Produced byEdouard Mauriat, Anne-Cécile Berthomeau
Written by Charlène Favier, Marie Talon
Starring Noée Abita, Jérémie Renier, Catherine Marchal, Muriel Combeau, Axel Auriant, Maïra Schmitt, François Godart
Music by Alexandre Lier, Sylvain Ohrel; Nicolas Weil
Cinematography Yann Maritaud
Edited by Maxime Pozzi-Garcia
Production companies :
Distributed by Jour2fête (France)
Release date: December 16, 2020 (France)
Running time : 92mns

Seen on September 12, 2020 at the Centre International de Deauville

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