Experiencing Interruptions?

The True Story of Vincent Legrand

Documentary director Roger and his crew follow the famous and whimsical street magician Vincent Legrand (Etienne Pradier) as he plans to perform an epic final trick before retiring. However, things go out of hand and they realise that the whole plan could be an act to fool his audience, the crew, the world, and maybe even himself.

This is the first time Etienne Pradier, a real-life magician, is starred in a narrative film. Etienne is a member of the Magic Circle with Gold Star and has numerous awards and accolades internationally. He has also performed for many celebrities and royalties. In 2011 in the Penn & Teller: Fool Us show, Etienne Pradier got to perform in Las Vegas with Penn & Teller after they failed to figure out how he achieved the Teleporting Card and Card Prediction tricks, earning him the honour to perform alongside Penn & Teller in Las Vegas.

  • Kew Lin
    Director
  • Kew Lin
    Writer
  • Jose Nieuwstad
    Producer
  • Daniel Calladine
    Producer
  • Lizzie Goodman
    Producer
  • Matthew Parker
    Producer
  • Etienne Pradier
    Key Cast
    Penn & Teller: Fool Us
  • Michael Kerry White
    Key Cast
  • Trevor Murphy
    Key Cast
  • Siew Moi Pang
    Executive Producer
  • Sam Gratton
    Executive Producer
  • Jaryl Lim
    Director of Photography
  • Ameya Sarda
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Drama, Mocumentary
  • Runtime:
    29 minutes 59 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 12, 2015
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes
  • Black Star International Film Festival
    Accra
    Ghana
    August 25, 2016
    World
  • Lublin Film Festival
    Lublin
    Poland
    European Premiere
    Masters of Observation nomination
  • Ramsgate International Film & TV Festival
    Ramsgate
    United Kingdom
    June 11, 2020
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Kew Lin

Kew Lin is a writer-director with the attitude of a contrarian and an obsession for absurdity. He has most recently co-written British feature film Love Possibly, which premiered at Raindance Film Festival and notably receiving the Best Screenplay award at the Sochi International Film Festival.

Fluent in Mandarin and the local culture, Kew often travels to China to make ethnographic documentaries. His credits as visual effects artist include Interstellar, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Bridge of Spies, Spectre and The Hunger Games series.

Kew Lin’s 4th fictional short film Of Pets & Dinner had its world premiere at the 65th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

This is the first time Etienne Pradier, a real-life magician, is starred in a narrative film. Etienne is a member of the Magic Circle with Gold Star and has numerous awards and accolades internationally. He has also performed for many celebrities and royalties. In 2011 in the Penn & Teller: Fool Us show, Etienne Pradier got to perform in Las Vegas with Penn & Teller after they failed to figure out how he achieved the Teleporting Card and Card Prediction tricks, earning him the honour to perform alongside Penn & Teller in Las Vegas.

The True Story of Vincent Legrand is a film about the setups, deceits and embellishment required to make something appear convincing for a group of people.

In this film, magician Vincent Legrand tries to achieve this reality by misdirection, distraction and all kinds of tricks up his sleeves, in order to fool the documentary team who are following him. At the same time, the film itself is also progressing in the style of a documentary, coupled with real archive footages, seemingly unplanned shots and actual unscripted happenings, in an effort to suspend any of our audience’s disbelief.

‘True story’ is after all an oxymoron; is it still true if it is a story?

Even though the film is shot in the UK, its production is an international one. I come from Singapore of the Far East and my producers come from UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. Furthermore the film was partially crowdfunded through Indiegogo.

I hope you find the film interesting and meaningful.

Kew Lin