Des jeunes filles disparaissent

A historical mystery approached in a postmodern fashion: Between 1652 and 1657, 58 girls were devoured by a wolf in French Essonne. Four centuries later, young women are once again disappearing in the same region. Director Clément Pinteaux sets out in search of clues. Crosses on a map indicate the locations where the girls were attacked and found so long ago. Landscapes in fog and rain. A young woman talks about the woman who went missing – a woman who is similar to her and yet different and whose work she continues today. Pinteaux observes the girls in their surroundings, together, on the job. Who will be next? Will there be a next time? Situated between staged and documentary material, the film encounters the girls on an equal footing – tracing moments of potential threat. In the end, Henry Purcell’s funeral march plays in the background, composed on the occasion of the death of England’s Maria II.: ‘He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and ne'er continueth in one stay.’ (Berlinale)