Dust of America

In the 16th century in the Cévennes, a horse dealer by the name of Michael Kohlhaas leads a happy and prosperous family life. When a lord treats him unjustly, this pious, upstanding man raises an army and puts the country to fire and sword in order to have his rights restored.

Schoolchildren tell stories in class. A worker goes home after his work day. A scholar explains ideas about colours and objects in ancient Greek philosophy.

Georges Nail lives in a new suburb. He's married, loves his wife, son and dog. Paul Hammer is good looking, rich and intelligent. But he is torn by his severe judgment of the world and a desire to be part of it. One day, their paths meet. Nail sees this meeting as an opportunity to create a new friendship. On his side, Hammer sees it as a new reason for living : to crucify the perfect image of the happy western man and his incarnation in the person of Georges Nail. A nail is the perfect victim for a hammer.

Under threat in Algeria, Ismahel emigrates to France where he wants to live and work, with the hope that the people he's fleeing from will forget him the time he is away. In the letters that he writes to the daughter that he left behind in his homeland, he tells his own story in the guise of the biblical tale of Jonas and the Whale. Somewhere in France, an elderly farmer has just lost his young son. His three other children help him as much as they can to get through the trial of the funeral, but the ceremony is halted when the old man falls ill. The two stories unfold parallel to each other and are alternated.

The life and work of Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), an American writer who lived in France for more than half of her life ("... not the half that made me, but the half when I did what I did..."), presented in a montage of her autobiographical texts, with pictures from today mixed with archives from the past.

Diane Wellington disappeared in South Dakota in 1938 at the age of 15. She has just be found.

A young woman who moves to Paris and has a brush with disaster. The grown-up at last, an accomplished woman, who thought she was safe from her own past. Gradually, these characters come together to form a single heroine.

Disneyland reviewed by a true poet of cinema, Arnaud Pallières. A disturbing journey into the simulacrum.