Comme le feu (Who by Fire)

17-year-old Jeff is invited by his friend Max to travel deep into the Canadian wilderness - but the main attraction for Jeff is not nature's beauty but Max's sister Aliocha with whom he is secretly in love. Their destination is at the remote lodge of a filmmaker (a role for multi-award-winning Franco-Belgian actor Arieh Worthalter), whose best work was created with Aliocha's father as screenwriter. Deep in the woods, old wounds between the once successful partners begin to fester and Jeff's dream vacation is in danger of turning into an awkward nightmare of blossoming love, or lust. With his third feature, director Philippe Lesage probes further into the youthful search for freedom, here truncated by fragile egos of grown men. Emotions swirl and tension rises in uneasy (dinner) scenes and long-held shots with nature as their indifferent witness. At the 2024 Berlinale, Comme le feu was awarded the Grand Prix by the international jury of the Generation 14plus competition.