After

Lapia’s hypnotic debut, presented in the Panorama section at the Berlinale, begins with a six-minute mood-setting shot in a Parisian club. The camera delves into the crowd immersed in a dance and drug-induced trance, capturing bodies brushing against each other. It films faces up close, semi-closed eyes, a moment of collective ecstasy. Night and music blur boundaries, defy rules, and allow for momentary revelations and erotic closeness. They create a space for unexpected encounters, like that of Félicie and Saïd, who decide to continue their conversation from the club in the girl's apartment. In the uncomfortable silence of the apartment, the mutual fascination between the lawyer and the Uber driver navigates between the laws of the night and the rules of the day, under which this pair wouldn't have the right to get so close. While the party slowly fades away in the club, conversations ignite and extinguish in the apartment, and dawn crawls onto the streets. After, a minimalist and phenomenally musically illustrated film, is an intimate portrait of a time and a generation that escapes the torment of reality through ecstatic partying. Lapii discreetly juxtaposes collective escapism with the communal resistance of the „yellow vests” where streets dance to the rhythm of fireworks, whistles, shouts, and gunshots.