2025 FESTIVALApril 2-12, 2025Lansing, MI
  • Aspiration

Aspiration

2024 / France / 5 Minutes / Stéphane Mandelkern

Film Synopsis

A young girl walks quickly along a fast lane. She has a sports bag on her shoulder. In voice-over, we hear her speak about the questions asked by a psychologist and the answers she gave. She runs to a wagon of a train that has stopped at the station, but its doors close, refusing her access. The train leaves and she watches him go away. She is walking down a street. A broken mirror emerges from a pile of garbage and reflects the image of her face in pieces. Stopped at a red light, the girl waits. Around her, passers-by move as if out of time. She is on a quay of the river Seine, watching the water in an alarming way. She puts down her bag and approaches the edge.

The girl is now sitting on the steps at the foot of a vertiginous staircase. A man comes down from the top of the stairs, sees her and sits next to her. He takes her hand and examines her open palm. He hands her a handkerchief that she accepts and wipes her tears, then returns it to him. The man reopens it and a precious stone appears inside, causing the girl to smile. Finally, he picks her up and helps her climb the stairs. At the top of the steps, the man has disappeared. She looks out over Paris. The cloudy sky brightened and a ray of sunshine appeared. She smiled at life.