In the suitcase

Anaelle is 18 years old. In a few days, she leaves for England to attend university. Belongings are scattered on her bedroom floor: the styles of her school years, holiday mementos, sociology textbooks. She wishes she could take it all. Packing the contents of her life, Anaelle laughs, cries, yells, and lights up a cigarette. She reflects on the past and worries about the future. What she packs in her suitcase connects the two.

  • Simon Kessler
    Director
  • Maxime Hervé
    Original soundtrack
  • Milo Lee
    Colorist
  • Vincent Bucher
    Sound
  • Anaelle Sessin-Fedida
    Key Cast
    "Anaelle"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Dans la valise
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    23 minutes 10 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 13, 2019
  • Country of Origin:
    France
  • Country of Filming:
    France
  • Language:
    French
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Festival International du Film Ethnographique de Québec
    Montréal
    Canada
    World Premiere
  • Australian Inspirational Film Festival
    Perth
    Australia
    September 1, 2020
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Simon Kessler

Simon Kessler is a French documentary filmmaker based between Montreal and Paris. He has directed and developed a number of documentaries for network television, including the National Geographic and Planète+ channels. His documentary AF447: In Search of Flight AF447 has been featured by the Guardian, France Inter, Radio-France International and Radio-Canada. In addition to his television work, Simon has developed a number of self-produced short documentaries. His personal practice privileges intimate portraits of people, places and institutions in intersticial moments.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

In my filmmaking practice, I attend to life's interstisial moments; by which I mean the necessary but overlooked in-between moments that take one's life from place to place, or experience to experience. When my sister decided to attend university abroad, I set out to make a film about her moving out. Yet, over the course of filming, I was repeatedly drawn to the simple act of her packing. As she debates which objects to take and which to leave behind, the audience bears witness to a young woman's anxiety about the future and nostalgia for the past. With care, the film elongates and celebrates a moment that marks an end (of sorts) of girlhood.