Victor Missud, Marina Russo Villani: Blooming | Exp. documentary | 4k | colour | 0:45:00 | France, Benin | 2024

Synopsis

In Benin, the water people, who once fought against colonisation, are now facing water hyacinth, a colonising plant that reproduces at breakneck speed, suffocating the lake. Realism and imagination intertwine, as if one were only understandable or tolerable because of the other.

“Founded three hundred years ago to escape slave traders, Ganvié, in Benin, has become the largest village on stilts in Africa and now attracts thousands of tourists. But the people of the water, who once fought against colonization, are now colonized by a new invader, the water hyacinth. Introduced, it is said, to decorate hotels and luxury homes, this plant reproduces at a dizzying and uncontrollable rate. It is suffocating the lake. A small Beninese company has managed to turn this scourge into a resource, but at the cost of exhausting work. Raw realism and imagination intermingle, as if one were only understandable or tolerable because of the other.”

Biography

Victor Missud is a French visual artist and filmmaker who lives and works in Toulouse. His work takes a poetic interest in people marginalised from a territory and society, who become non-professional actors and actresses in his works. Blending documentary, fiction and genre cinema, his works have been presented and awarded prizes in France and abroad – Visions du Réel, IFF Rotterdam, Hors Pistes – Centre Pompidou, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Etats Généraux du Documentaire de Lussas. In 2024, he joined Le Fresnoy – National Studio of Contemporary Arts.

Italian and a graduate in Art Economics from Bocconi University, Marina Russo Villani trained in cinema and screenwriting in France, at the Sorbonne Nouvelle and Paris Nanterre. A screenwriter and director of fiction and documentaries, she co-wrote ‘À qui le monde’ (To Whom Does the World Belong), a fantastical political fable that paints a fantastical and ironic portrait of how the world works. In parallel with her work as an author, she founded her production company, Filibusta, in 2023.