The Jump

Teens from the neighborhood look up to him. The 22-year-old daredevil Alain Demaria has been jumping into the sea from a dangerously high rock for years. Not only does he leap the 13 meters (42 feet) down, skimming past jagged rocks, but he also does it head first. No one has ever copied him.

In a dynamic style combining grainy photography with dazzling slow-motion shots and a creative use of sound, we hear from Demaria to gain a brief glimpse of his life. He talks about smoking joints to suppress his anger, his relationship with his mother, and the unpleasant experiences of his childhood. And of course about jumping: “You smash aside the water with your head and your fists. It’s like smashing in a window and going through it.”

But Demaria is no longer the boy he used to be. Vanessa Dumont and Nicolas Davenel have caught him precisely at the boundary between childhood and adulthood, offering up a moving coming-of-age drama in just 12 minutes.