The Island

It’s the end of summer after the final exams, and tomorrow Rosa will be leaving France for Montreal to start dance school. Tonight, she’s having a party with her friends at a place by the sea that they call “the island.” They spend the night drinking, smoking, chatting, laughing, crying, fighting and kissing, until dawn comes and they have to say goodbye—to each other, but also to their shared childhood.

The Island is both a fiction and a making-of film: scenes alternate between the beach and rehearsal room where the young actors (who use their own names in both cinematic layers) receive notes from the director or explore their roles through improvisation. Movement plays an important role; the film is like a choreography, a dance of befriended bodies, accompanied by recurring dialogue and commentary. It’s a farewell that is repeated until it becomes inevitable.