he Book of European Short Pitch. - Nisi Masa

CLARISSE POTOKy
FRANCE
ABOUDI LAO
Tel: +33 683 517 060
E-mail: cla.potoky@yahoo.fr
Intention
“Desertion” has always been an important theme in
my family story. During the Second World War my
Jewish grandmother fled Austria and took refuge
in France where she met my grandfather. They had
three children but, struggling with money, had to give
them away for adoption. At the age of 15, my father
discovered that he was adopted. When he was 18, he
travelled through France to find his biological mother.
Sadly, the encounter with my grandmother didn’t give
him the answers he was looking for, leaving an emotional
scar that never healed.
Aboudi Lao gives me the opportunity to deal with this
complicated subject. However, I didn’t want to tell the
20
story of my father and I felt the need to focus on the
opposite point of view: the deserting mother.
As children, my friends and I often invented a magic
dialect in order to exchange secrets. This game was a
symbol for a deeper dream, the possibility of creating
a world in which imagination had no boundaries. Such
creations are characteristic of childhood and, personally,
I think they are most sacred.
The secret dialect in Aboudi Lao is a “poetic metaphor”
of a painful and profound wound. Anna’s only way to
communicate with her son and to help him in his grieving
process is to learn his language. That is her last
possibility for redemption.
Synopsis
Settled in Nice, Anna, 23, is a promising young photographer.
One day, a phone call is enough to turn her
life upside down. Her ex fiancé has just died, leaving
Pierre, their 4-year-old son, an “orphan”.
Anna is suddenly forced to face her past mistake: being
psychologically fragile, Anna couldn’t take on her
responsibilities and abandoned him after his birth.
Now Marie France, Anna’s mother-in-law, has started
a procedure to obtain the boy’s custody.
Torn between the conviction of being a bad mother
and the fear that her mother-in-law will get custody of
her child, Anna finally decides to spend the three days
preceding the verdict of the judge with Pierre. Totally
inexperienced and awkward as a mother, she tries to
overcome the rejection of her son.
Her surprise is all the stronger when she finds out that
the child has been expressing himself in a strange
language that nobody understands since his father’s
death. More and more involved, Anna realises that the
only way to communicate with Pierre is to learn this
language.
PRODUCTION FACTS
Estimated Budget: 100.000 €
Iloz Productions
Anna Sarkissian
“All true language
is incomprehensible.”
Director Biography
Just after finishing a Master’s degree in
Cinema, I crossed the Channel in 2009
and worked in London for a year as a
production assistant. Back to Paris, I was
active in the same area for a production
company specialised in kids TV programs.
Then I worked as a web editorialist
but soon discovered a need to learn
the craft of screenwriting. I participated in
a few competitions and was lucky enough
to be a prize winner of the Estran Script
Competition 2011 with a short film project
Les Anglais ont débarqué. Straight after
that, Aboudi Lao won 3rd prize for best
script at the Film Festival of Lille. It has
been selected for European Short Pitch
2012 with Iloz Productions attached to the
development.