Leughenaer
Axelle Bruniau

Leughenaer –“liar” in Flemish – is a film directed by Axelle Bruniau examining her ties to her family and cultural heritage. Filmed in Dunkerque, and partly in the house where she grew up, this autobiographical narrative addresses Bruniau’s transfemininity and evokes a quest for identity in the family and social contexts where the culture of carnival and cross-dressing are for three months of the year an engine of life. Over the repetitive sounds of waves and brass instruments, and in images with a tense and disconcerting ambience, the artist plays the role of herself alongside her mother. Both author and actor, she reappropriates the personal history of her own childhood, and reveals in images an identity transition that develops over time like a voyage, until she becomes herself. In the background of her story are the beaches of her hometown of Dunkerque, which were transformed and reconstructed after the Second World War.

With the support of: Canton de Vaud