30/06/2010

Twelve-year-old Nina is enjoying a happy early adolescence, in a beautiful country house where she can satisfy her passion for flies, which she presents in a blog. When her father gives her a mobile phone with in-built video camera, she turns into an image thief, secretly capturing fragments of life. If pieced together, they could tell a story of money, adultery, personal and professional bankruptcy that the others are trying to hide from her.

Miss Mouche is the fourth work in the series of low-budget films produced by Cinéastes Associés (two projects per year since last year). These films must have a budget of between €140,000-280,000.

After 20 years working in television, Bernard Halut saw in Cinéastes Associés an invaluable opportunity to make the transition to features “in total freedom”, free of the administrative and financial constraints of commissions and other similar obligatory channels.

Attracted to the concept of the micro-budget, he thus dreamed up Miss Mouche, which tells the story of an injured, bedridden woman, whose memory they are trying to revive through fragments of film hastily shot with a phone and viewed on a computer. It’s a bold gamble that pays off, thanks in particular to its accurate portrayal of adolescence, playing on young people’s tendency towards immodest behaviour which is encouraged by the multimedia possibilities of the web.

Nina’s exposed private life spreads contagiously to that of her parents, and puts viewers in the position of voyeur, which causes both unease and frustration. The portrait is sublimated by the captivating performance by young Mona Jabé, incorporating energy and indolence. She is joined in the cast by regular stage actors Bernard Cogniaux, Valérie Bauchau, Thierry de Coster and Chantal Pirotte.

Miss Mouche was unveiled in avant-premiere in the Panorama section at the Brussels Film Festival. It is expected to be released in Belgium by Big Bang Distribution in late 2010, early 2011.

(Translated from French)