Ballet boréal
In In northern Sweden, in the immense boreal forest, Torn is one of the 7,000 seasonal Thai pickers who come every year to ensure the survival of the local wild berry market. By collecting as much as he can each day, he hopes to return home with enough to live on for a few months. At 77, Pär is a sort of hermit in this forest, which he knows by heart but will soon have to abandon. He sees it transform around his home, and lives one of his last summers of gathering, calm and poetry. Between them, harvesting, the fragile ecosystem that reveals the forest, far from the postcard images that it so often portrays.
2025 (41 mins)
Director/filmmaker: Thomas Grandremy, Simon Maraud
Producer: Jonathan Slimak
Country of production: France
Country/location of film: Sweden
Screening: 16.10 Wed 8th Oct at the Museum of Macedonia
Thomas Grandremy graduated from the BTS Audiovisuel class in Rouen in 2010, before moving to Paris and working as a chief editor on a variety of formats, from short fiction to advertising and audiovisual documentaries. In 2012, he joined the Sourdoreille Production collective and began a transition to directing, penning several music videos and a few short documentaries. With each of his films, Thomas creates a singularly committed and humanistic filmic proposition.
Simon Maraud works in the geography departments of Université Laval (Canada) and Université de Limoges (France). His research in critical geography focuses on the capitalist exploitation of natural resources and the notion of decolonization in indigenous territories. He works with two indigenous peoples: the Cree (in Quebec) and the Sami (in Sweden). He analyses the processes of “decolonization” in Eeyou Istchee and Sápmi with a critical approach. This film is Simon’s first attempt at documentary filmmaking.
NAFA 2025 