This terrific first feature from Fanny Liatard combines psychogeography with fantasy to create something rather unusual and lovely. For teenager Youri (Alseni Bathily), his home and community in the vast Cité Gagarine housing complex on the outskirts of Paris is his support network and de facto family. Along with his best friend, he battles to save the buildings from demolition.
But even as the other residents pack up and leave, Youri can’t bring himself to go – he’s connected to the place, not least in also being named after the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Liatard finds a melancholy beauty in the crumbling concrete and empty windows – the real Cité Gagarine was used as a location, shortly before it was pulled down last year – making a case that it’s not just our memories that connect us to a place, it’s our hopes and future dreams too.
