A wonderfully balanced short film, Transylvanie is a fresh take on a well-worn genre. Rodrigue Huart’s excellent film engrosses you with ease, with lead Katell Varvat destined for great things.
Ewa is a 10-year-old girl living in a high building in a quiet town. She’s an odd, lonely child and for good reason: she’s convinced of being a vampire. Fascinated by Hugo, 15, she dreams of turning him into a vampire too, so that she can overcome her loneliness. When Ewa opens up to him, she gets bullied by teenagers from the neighborhood. Hurt in her body and soul, she’s ready to act in the creepiest, sickest ways to prove her identity to the world.
Transylvanie is a devastatingly lonely film, at times running similar to Romero’s Martin and Kirsten Dunsts’ Claudia from Interview With The Vampire. You feel for young Ewa but are always aware of an ominous tone spread throughout that we should be more worried about her than for her in Rodrigue Huart’s impressive film. Huart and co-writers David A. Cassan and Axel Wursten have taken from a multitude of vampire myths, books and films to create the tone of the film. This is a knowledgeable film that guides you carefully without hamming up its influences.
Katell Varvat owns the screen, and you are as invested in her vampiric journey as you could possibly get; her performance has you running through a gauntlet of emotions, pity for the bullying she is going through and for how horribly lonesome her world is. All the way to fear, fear for when she becomes empowered to what she could do to others and then a primal fear of her as she tries to make her final point to those around her. For someone so young, your eyes keep getting drawn to her as she commands the audience’s attention. Hopefully, we will see her career further blossom, as there is substantial talent there.
However, for all the foreboding tone spread throughout Transylvanie, there is also a quirkiness present that keeps us on our toes. We are in a world we are not entirely sure is our own. Is Ewa, in fact, a vampire, or is she, as the group of bullies believe, mentally broken to believe she is a vampire and has a master? By toying with us for the length of the film, we are left to make our own assumptions.
Huart shows a very deft hand as a filmmaker, leaving us just enough to be satisfied with what we have been given in these 15 short minutes while also captivating us enough that we simply need to know what happens next with Ewa. It is really a difficult line to tread as a filmmaker who ventures into the short form. Here Huart balances it perfectly, and with the award-winning hands of cinematographer Julien Ramirez Hernan (the film won Best Cinematography for International Short Film at Fantasia this year), Transylvania is a surefire hit of a film.
With a careful story that breezes by, Transylvanie packs a wicked punch with a well-earned ending. Expect to hear more down the line from all of those involved in this special film.
★★★★
The Fantasia International Film Festival takes place in Montreal from July 20th through August 9th.
For more of our coverage of Fantasia 2023, please see below:
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