02/09/2024 - VENICE 2024: Camille Lugan’s feature debut is a risky and surprising atmospheric film that talks about God, dealing, grace and love

“Chase fear from your mind and act according to your heart.” We see a lot of films, good or less good, woven in the same uniform thread with thousands of subtle nuances, but it is rather rare nowadays, outside experimental cinema, to find one that is clearly off the beaten track and carries a truly original voice. In a certain way, it is an oddity and, like all oddities, it will intrigue, seduce by surprise, or even confuse. Such is the case with The Book of Joy [+see also:
interview: Camille Lugan
film profile], the very mystical debut feature by Camille Lugan, discovered in Giornate degli Autori at the 81st Venice Film Festival.

“Who are you?” A very beautiful young woman raised by a priest (Raphaël Thiéry) in the church in front of which she was left as a baby, Joy (Sonia Bonny) dedicates her daily life to goodness, riding across a dilapidated city at night on her bike and comforting the homeless. But one evening, Andriy (Ukrainian actor Volodymyr Zhdanov), a boy her age, appears, bloody, in her life, hiding in the confessional to escape two vindictive cops. Joy hosts and takes care of him, but thinking he was taking advantage of her sleep, he steals her rosary and flees. Joy then pursues him in the deserted city up to a warehouse in the port where a savage reconstituted family of dealers led by Mater (Italian actress Asia Argento) lives. Attracted to Andriy like a magnet, and feeling herself invested with a divine mission and with the need to find and spread grace, Joy joins the group. But her bearings are beginning to waver and she has doubts…

Written by the director with Salvatore Lista, the script, which makes two worlds seemingly totally opposed collide (good and evil, to put it simply, and one can evoke a distant filiation with Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves), is woven in classic Christian symbolism (hope, temptation, crucifixion, etc.). Beyond its potential theological interest (the power and limits of faith and love, the powers of physical nature – especially sexual – and of the spirit) inserted into an effective and minimalist film noir case and an environment of marginal survival on the verge of social collapse, The Book of Joy stands out especially for its acute and remarkable sense of atmosphere (gazes - the fascinating eyes of the two young protagonists -, skins, gestures, depopulated nights in the city, the organ in the church, etc.) fantastically lit by director of photography Victor Zébo. With this magnetic first feature with a very small budget that will leave no one indifferent, Camille Lugan manifests clearly a very personal voice whose next echoes will have to be followed closely.

The Book of Joy was produced by Barney Production. Croatian outfit Split Screen handles international sales.

(Translated from French)