Le Bois dont les rêves sont faits (The Woods Dreams Are Made of)

Over the course of a year, Claire Simon portrays life in the Bois de Vincennes, one of Paris' two urban forests and a popular and lively recreational area. People from a wide range of cultures visit the park to celebrate with friends or family or to pursue sporting activities. For some, the forest is a workplace: landscape planners or scientists research and care for flora and fauna, prostitutes receive their clients under the protection of the trees. For others, the thicket is a refuge, whether as a place to live or as a gay cruising zone to find like-minded people for sexual encounters in secret places. The director gets into conversation with many people, some of whom she meets repeatedly in the course of the film, and builds on previous encounters. Simon creates an ethnographic map and allows the people she meets to curiously explain their world to her. (Andrea Pollach)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum