15/07/2024 - The debut feature by Luxembourgish director Loïc Tanson takes us back in time to 1854 to tell a wholly female story of revenge

Captained by the wonderful Sophie Mousel - who plays Hélène, the main character in this film which was shot exclusively in Luxembourg, where its director, Loïc Tanson, was born - The Last Ashes introduces us to a little-known period in time which led to Luxembourg becoming an autonomous state, free from the yoke of Holland and Prussia. Presented in a world premiere at the 2023 Sitges Film Festival, and chosen to represent the country at the Oscars in the category of Best International Feature Film, Tanson’s first full-length movie is now screening in the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, having been selected for the Third Kind line-up.

A spot-on, intriguing mix of various film (sub) genres - western movie, gory-toned horror and cathartic rape and revenge film - The Last Ashes follows in the American tradition whilst also enriching it with European folklore. The result is an intriguing, one-of-a-kind film which gives a liberatory kick in the privates to an overconfident patriarchal tradition. The story told by Loïc Tanson is that of a little girl who decides to defy an unfair and violent tradition which forces women into silence and, ultimately, submission.

Set in Luxembourg in 1854, the film is divided into two parts. The first revolves around twelve-year-old Hélène, who lives with her family on the estate of the powerful and despotic Graff in order to survive the famine looming over the entire country. Until she decides to defy her destiny of becoming - at the end of a gruesome initiatory ritual - one of Graff’s many “women” whose only aim in life is to procreate (children, and then later, robust yet docile men). Filmed in majestic black and white, which highlights the coldness of the stones on which the Graffs’ estate is built, and places even greater emphasis on the dichotomy separating the powerful from their subjects and, first and foremost, men from women, this initial part of the story is arguably the most interesting, from an aesthetic viewpoint at least. The strange masks the children are forced to wear and the mysterious sounds of the Luxembourg language immerse us in a disorientating and cruel universe, and keep us watching with bated breath.

In the second part of the film, which is in colour, Hélène, now an adult who has survived the murder of her family, returns to the Graff estate to take revenge, and her vendetta will know no bounds. The ferocity and determination with which she implements her plan rouses the other women dominated by Graff, brutally awakening them from their tragic torpor. Together, they trigger a revolution which has been bubbling beneath the surface since the film’s opening images, giving the audience an unstoppable urge to cheer them on. You might ask why we have to wait two hours to get to an ending we could have predicted from the outset, but the euphoria the protagonist’s revenge elicits in the audience is definitely worth the wait.

Jubilatory, mysterious, and well structured, The Last Ashes will delight genre film fans and others, especially those itching to deliver a much-needed slap in the face to the patriarchal family and all its despots.

The Last Ashes was produced by Samsa Film (Luxembourg) and Artemis Productions (Belgium). One Eyed Films is managing international sales.

(Translated from Italian)