La Petite Mort

La petite mort is a personal, experimental project at the intersection of film, theatre, and documentary. The story unfolds through a surreal courtroom trial in which Ophelia, accused of killing herself, fractures into two selves. Moving through a dreamlike landscape of memory, both versions revisit decisive moments from different stages of life, attempting to confront and reconcile her choices.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s Ophelia, the film becomes a reflection on friendship, identity, and self-acceptance. Drawing from intimate childhood archives, it portrays girls growing up in a small town in Poland in the 2000s—between swimming practices, homemade videos inspired by American DVDs, early encounters with performance, and the search for belonging. These fragments form a series of “drawers,” each revealing first experiences of love, family, ageing, loneliness, and desire.

By blending personal documentary materials with performative fiction, La petite mort transforms memory into a shared space—where the private becomes universal, and growing up is revisited as both a wound and a gesture of tenderness.