The Zola Experience

An unpredictable, free and inexhaustibly thought-provoking game of reflections transports us along the elusive boundary separating fantasy from reality, but intertwining art with life. A young actress and theater director is busy preparing for a theatrical adaptation of Emile Zola’s chef-d'oeuvre L’Assommoir – one of the first naturalistic portrayals of the proletariat’s harsh reality. However, during rehearsals, she senses that the role of Gervaise Macquart, of a woman moving from Provence to Paris and struggling to survive a trying marriage (and world), gives voice to her own untold trauma. As one of the most significant emerging stars in contemporary documentary filmmaking delves into alcoholism, domestic violence and working in a male-dominated environment in a unique fashion, a simple yet sobering question arises: In our own lives, which role are we ultimately called upon to perform?