Apolline (Lila Gueneau) finds connection, excitement, and escape in the fantasy world of Darknoon, where her avatar strides about confidently in a medieval thong, wields a huge sword, and rides a giant wolf. It’s a passion she shares with her older brother, Pablo (Théo Cholbi), a street dealer who is making enemies fast with his rogue operation. Then there’s Night (Erwan Kepoa Falé), who becomes Pablo’s partner, and his lover.
The second feature from the team behind Jessica Forever (2018), Eat the Night is a bold attempt to merge social realism, fantasy, and a kind of poetic fatalism that taps into a rich vein in French cinema. In this, the movie makes an intriguing dramatic counterpoint to the recent documentaries Grand Theft Hamlet and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, which took an equally romantic view of virtual lives.
A shaggy and flawed French crime thriller that’s sensitive and queer, quick-mutating in its psychological guts, and melancholy with jolts of oddly electric escapism.
Alison Foreman, Indiewire
Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel
Théo Cholbi, Lila Gueneau, Erwan Kepoa Falé
France
2024
In French with English subtitles
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Screenwriter
Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel, Guillaume Bréaud
Cinematography
Raphaël Vandenbussche
Original Music
Ssaliva
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