This 47-year-old Norwegian has just won with this macabre fable, his second feature film, the Audience and Press Jury Prizes at the Gérardmer International Fantastic Film Festival.

"I am very cinephile, I like all kinds of films and I have the luxury of being able to make some without defining them in advance", explained to AFP the director, who feels at home as well in the rooms. of the Vosges festival than in those of Cannes, where he was invited last July.

Norwegian director and screenwriter Eskil Vogt during the closing ceremony of the 29th Gérardmer film festival, January 30, 2022 JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN AFP / Archives

In addition to "The Innocents" (in the Un Certain Regard section), he presented "Julie in 12 chapters", for which he wrote the screenplay alongside his faithful sidekick and compatriot Joachim Trier.

Together, they will have written five films, including a decade ago the very noticed "Oslo, August 31".

A double selection at Cannes which did not turn the head of this father of a family: "it opened doors and proposals to me, but I had nothing, no projects", laughs does it six months after.

"I felt like the least professional director in the world!".

"Julie in 12 chapters", a dramatic comedy on the existential quest of a young woman today and "The Innocents" have little in common, except perhaps the desire to approach, for small touches, a wide palette of contemporary questions.

"I love it when there are lots of touches, different details in a film. It's better to have too much than not enough", underlines Eskil Vogt, perfectly French-speaking and a 2004 graduate of the production department of La Fémis, the film school French.

- Mystery of childhood -

To probe the mystery of childhood, a period that has fascinated him since he became a father but of which he is "not nostalgic", the director immerses himself in a rather quiet Norwegian district, where several social classes mingle , and where the concrete towers open directly onto the forest.

A young couple with two little girls, Ida and Anna, the eldest of whom is autistic and severely handicapped, has just moved in.

While the parents are busy, the children become friends with little neighbours, Ben and Aïsha, the children of two modest families, from immigrant backgrounds.

By killing time during the long days of the Nordic summer, far from the gaze of their parents, almost absent from the story, they quickly realize that together they have supernatural powers.

By telepathy, the autistic little girl will finally be able to communicate with others, while the children have fun throwing pebbles or breaking sticks in thought.

"Magic, powers, it allowed us to think about how we become a person with morality, empathy. We are not born with it, it is built as childhood progresses", underlines director.

Because the games of these children will not long remain without consequences, even threatening to turn to massacre when they realize the extent of their powers, which allow them to satisfy all their urges.

"I knew it needed scary sequences, I love horror movies but I'm also very interested in the psychology of the characters", underlines Eskil Vogt, whose film opens a series of questions on morality individual or cruelty.

"I wanted to rediscover this state of childhood, which is so different from adult life in the way of perceiving the world."

© 2022 AFP