Almaritsu

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Two children are lost in the confusion of age and maturity. The first is a ten years old boy, the other is three times older. One has to run away to construct himself, while the other has to return to his origins to reconstruct himself.
Their encounter will change their slow-moving surroundings and lead all the human beings who cross the path of their dreamlike journey. The result of this quest through imagination is a strange invention. A dreamlike machine which will perturb the life of the town's people, and which will give two free spirits the possibility to make their dream of leaving come true.
Through a nonsense dreamlike world, the power of their naivety give us a lesson in altruism.

Filmmaker Notes

Almaritsu is an independent Unidentified Filmic Object.
The filmmaker plays with contrasts and oppositions. Both childlike and mature, on the verge of animation and reality, of adventure and experience, of steampunk and minimalism, both imposing and cosy.
Damien Montaron plays with these contrasting forces using poetry and sensitivity, the result is a strong film which belongs nowhere and everywhere.

All of the 244 shots of the film were touched up or entirely composed on computer.

Yet, no CGI was created as such. Only compositing was used, made up from real elements. More than 2000 photos were taken to complete the actual shots of the film (houses, boats, fields, fabrics, marbles...)

A singular aesthetics results from these technical choices and it spans the whole film. The spectator is thus drawn into a transfigured reality, close from a virtual world, floating on the edge of dreams. This feeling of walking on a fine like between two worlds is the expression of the direct will of the director and was his aim from the start.