“Palma” by Alexe Poukine is a journey of identity and self-awareness
“Palma” by Alexe Poukine tells the story of Jeanne, who takes her six-year-old daughter on a weekend trip to Mallorca. While everything goes down the drain, Jeanne's only concern is to photograph Kiki, the class mascot.
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Alexe Poukine in her short feature drama debut, “Palma”, takes the audience to a journey of identity and self-awareness with a mother and child and explores, within the bond between the two, the complexity of human nature and targets issues of modern world.
Directed by Alexe Poukine
Written by Alexe Poukine
Cast Lua Michel (as Vanya), Alexe Poukine (as Jeanne)
Executive Producers François-Pierre Clavel, Alexandre Perrier, François Nabos
Foreign Producer Benoît Roland
Line Producer François-Pierre Clavel
Cinematography by Colin Lévêque
Editor Agnès Bruckert
Sound recordist Ophélie Boully
Sound editor Valène Leroy
Foley artist Julien Baissat
Sound Mixer Rémi Gérard
Artistic Director Delphine Girard
Production manager Elisa Sepulveda Ruddoff
Production Companies Kidam, Wrong Men
Countries of production France, Belgium
2020 ‧ Drama/Narrative ‧ 39 mins
Official website
Storyline
“Palma” by Alexe Poukine tells the story of Jeanne, who takes her six-year-old daughter on a weekend trip to Mallorca. While everything goes down the drain, Jeanne’s only concern is to photograph Kiki, the class mascot.
Selections
“Palma” has competed in prestigious film festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (France, 2021), Palm Springs International Short Film Festival (United States, 2021), Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR) (The Netherlands, 2021), Brussels Short Film Festival (Belgium, 2021), Festival International du Film Indépendant de Bordeaux (FIFIB)(France, 2020), International Film Festival Entrevues Belfort (France, 2020).
Awards
Alexe Poukine’s acclaimed movie has won awards at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film (Best Actress Award and Jury Prize), Palm Springs International Short Film Festival (Jury Special Mention), The Angers European First Film Festival (Best Actress Award) and Rencontres du moyen métrage de Brive ( Best Directing Award, Distribution Award, Youth Jury Mention) to name a few.
About Alexe Poukine
Alexe Poukine (1982, France) is a filmmaker, screenwriter and an actress.
After taking drama classes, she studied anthropology, documentary directing and scriptwriting. Her graduation documentary “Petites morts” (2008) was selected at various film festivals and her subsequent documentaries “Dormir, dormir dans les pierres” (2013) and “Sans frapper” (2019) have won numerous awards at prestigious festivals, including the Jury Prize for most innovative feature film at Visions du Réel.
“Palma” is Poukine’s short feature drama debut.
“Palma” opens in a bus terminal in Palma, Mallorca
“Palma” opens in a bus terminal in Palma—a resort city and capital of the Spanish island of Mallorca in the western Mediterranean.
Everything seems quite ordinary on the bus terminal except for Jeanne (starring Alexe Poukine), a single mother, who is pushing her six-year-old daughter, Vanya (starring Lua Michel), sitting on a trolley, in utmost joy around the bus stop. The movie, in its very beginning, lay stress on the happiness that the characters try to pursuit and feel by their arrival in Palma; a location that suggests pleasure, joy and happiness—HEAVEN.
Jeanne and Vanya are not alone on the trip to Mallorca, though. Kiki, the class mascot, is accompanying them like a family member. Kiki, the monkey mascot, is wearing a happy smile and that’s what he does: smiling all the time even when things can go wrong.
The movie was first called “Kiki”
The movie was first called “Kiki” after the class mascot during the preparatory stages and the shooting of the film.
“The film was written as a tragi-comedy, but the project went through a transformation as time went on. At the end of editing, we realized that the original title didn’t really correspond anymore to the film, which ended up more dramatic than I had first imagined. We decided to call it “Palma” because that is the name of the town where the two heroines spend the weekend, but also because that evokes the image of the palm tree. It was a nod to the mother’s search to take the best photos possible of Kiki, to make her look like a wonderful mother,” Director Alexe Poukine explained on her choice of the movie title “Palma” in an interview with Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.
“Palma” is a movie with details in its pocket for each scene
Written and directed by Alexe Poukine, “Palma” is a movie with details in its pocket for each moment. The details of the story are gradually revealed, making the audience thirsty to know more. Alexe Poukine (as Jeanne) and Lua Michel (as Vanya) give superb performances throughout the movie. There is a reason behind each movement of Cinematographer Colin Leveque’s camera, and the film editing by Agnès Bruckert pushes the story forward in a subtle way. Delphine Girard, the artistic director of “Palma”, has coached Lua Michel to portray Vanya in the perfect manner, and Alexe Poukine’s touching portrayal of Jeanne owes to her direction in acting.
The scrapbook plays a significant role in “Palma”
The scrapbook plays a significant role in “Palma” and symbolically represents ‘Persona (mask)’—the outward face we present to the world to conceal our real self.
“Nobody smiles in real life like that,” Jeanne tells Vanya in the conversation about Vanya’s other classmates’ photographs featured on the scrapbook.
Jeanne suggests that Vanya’s classmates are pretending to have fun in all the photos. “Can you see the way she’s laughing? You can tell on her face that her mouth is laughing, but her eyes are sad,” Jeanne tells Vanya. It seems that Jeanne is describing her own self in real life.
“Palma” is a scrapbook into the complexity of a mother and child relationship
Pretending to be happy can be one of the main reasons to make the trip to Mallorca. Jean and Vanya, feeling lonely in their own lives, are in competition with Vanya’s classmates and their parents to look happier. In “Palma” , we turn pages of a scrapbook into the complexity of a mother and child relationship. We dive into lives of 2 women: Jeanne, a single mother escaping loneliness, and Vanya, who is attached to her mother, looking at her as a role model to become a woman.
This film is born from my desire to replay an episode that I had a few years ago with my daughter. I was in a very difficult place both emotionally and financially and I decided to leave for Mallorca on a whim because I couldn’t stand the thought of my daughter having to present a life that I didn’t like and that I was ashamed of in front of her entire class, with pictures to back it up.
Loneliness is a bold keyword in “Palma”
Loneliness is a bold keyword in “Palma”, and it portrays both Jeanne and Vanya. Jeanne is obviously so lonely, and even travelling with Vanya to Palma is not taking away the horrible feeling. Even Vanya feels lonely. She wants a little brother or sister, so she can play with and walk out of her loneliness.
Director Alexe Poukine raises the very question if man tries to have children to escape their own loneliness. But, as lonely creatures in the universe, can we escape loneliness?
Referencing to the fairy tale of “Little Red Riding Hood”
The story takes a turn when Jeanne’s credit cards get rejected in the supermarket. So, she has no money to continue the journey, and starts stealing from the guest house fridge.
She gets caught stealing from the fridge by the landlady, and tries to explain about the situation to her. Jeanne looks like a guilty child trying to explain to her mother that what she’s done, is not wrong because everyone caught in the situation may do so.
She’s wearing a ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ hoodie, and indirectly points to the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood, in which the safe world of the village (Home) and the dangers of the forest (Society) are being contrasted.
Jeanne blames Vanya for the trip to Palma which is no longer fun
The journey continues next day with the long walk to the Luna Beach. Jeanne is carrying Vanya on her back as she’s having sore feet. They can’t seem to find the beach and Jeanne is quite exhausted carrying Vanya on her back.
Obviously, the trip to Palma is no longer fun, and Vanya is tired. Jeanne reminds Vanya at the beach that it’s all for her scrapbook, and tries to take pictures of Vanya and Kiki with fake happy smiles. She even takes a picture of Kiki and herself at the beach, trying to wear fake smiles.
Jeanne carries the weight of the world on her back
In “Palma”, Director Alexe Poukine uses metaphorical language, like in Luna beach scene, to reveal her heroines.
Jeanne and Vanya are watching female worker ants carrying food around. “What they are carrying seems so heavy,” Jeanne says to Vanya.
“I wonder if they’re going back home. And if at night, they meet up for drinks,” Jean thinks out loud.
Nothing in the trip to “Palma” has gone in the right direction
Nothing in the trip to “Palma” has gone in the right direction: a stronger bond has failed to grow between Jeanne and Vanya, and Vanya’s idea of the best in the scrapbook assignment has not been fulfilled.
Vanya, drawing a painting of a smiling sun in the skies with bright clouds, thinks she’s a complete failure, and that the painting is ugly. That said, Vanya wants to give a hint to Jeanne to tell her that she’s a bright girl and the painting is not ugly, but Jeanne is so drawn in her own troubles that can’t give Vanya her attention.
Vanya does not finish the butterfly in her painting, let it to stay as a worm (caterpillar). And the worm—things that bother her inside—crawls out of her skin. She starts throwing her color pencils around, and tears the painting off her painting book and throws it away. Jeanne watches Vanya without any reactions.
This is the point both Jeanne and Vanya have stopped pretending to be happy, and try to face the bitter reality of misery and loneliness in their lives.
Jeanne locks herself in the bathroom, crying. Vanya keeps turning the light on and off trying to force Jeanne out of the bathroom. Jean comes out in the end, and heads to the balcony.
Now, what represents the symbol of happiness, takes a fall and collapses. It’s not Kiki falling down, it’s the very happiness that Jeanne and Vanya have been faking.
Vanya looks at Jeanne, trying to guess her thought and reaction. Jeanne looks back at Vanya, making her feel more guilty. Jeanne gets out to fetch Kiki from the street. Vanya looks down at Kiki, lying down in the middle of the street, still wearing a smile. A passing car runs over Kiki’s paw. Kiki does not seem to feel the pain, and keeps smiling on her mouth.
Jeanne and Kiki share deep wounds
Jeanne is holding Kiki, destroyed in some parts, in the street. For a moment, it seems that both of them share deep wounds, and both of them pretend to be happy. One by wearing a smile all the time, the other by drowning and suffocating the pain inside.
A man offers to buy Jeanne some drinks. He tries to make some conversation, but they can hardly understand each other because of language differences. Talking to the man, a ray of smile appears on Jeanne’s face. Jeanne is trying to tell him about her trip to Palma. She thinks she might start telling him about all that has happened during the trip, and the pain inside comes stronger to the surface.
Another man approaches her; a man with a strong body. The camera keeps a distance from Jeanne, and the man hitting on her. In the next scene, a cat—which can see things even in the complete darkness— is looking with curiosity at something we’re not allowed to see; the intimacy between Jeanne and the stranger.
The storm inside Jeanne turns into a calm shore
Now, the storm inside Jeanne seems to have turned into a calm shore. She walks in the calm ocean and feels the calmness of the ocean. Swimming naked, Jeanne lets the ocean fills her up with calmness.
The ocean is the beginning of life on Earth, and symbolizes formlessness, the unfathomable, and chaos. It’s also a symbol of stability, as it can exist largely unchanged for centuries.
Jeanne & Vanya: a fresh start and a new beginning
When Jeanne gets back to the guest house, we sense that she’s not the Jeanne we used to know all through “Palma”.
Everyone at the guest house is worried that where Jeanne had gone, and why she’d left Vanya all by herself. Jeanne does not seem worried, though. Now, she looks like a strong confident woman.
Jeanne kisses Vanya, waking her up. She hugs her daughter firmly, apologizing. Vanya tells her that she cried while she was away. It seems that Jeanne has done the same before coming back. Both Jeanne and Vanya have walked out of their old skin, and seem like two different persons.
Wet from swimming in the ocean, drips of water from Jean’s hair fall onto Vanya’s face and make her laugh. She’s laughing with a real smile.
It’s dawn and the city has woken up to start the life on Palma. From the balcony, the sun is gradually rising, promising a fresh start and a new beginning.
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