Award: Best Film Award – 6th edition of the Kobani International Film Festival 2025 “Here the Story Begins”

The film received the Best Film Award for its deeply sensitive visual treatment of identity, refusal, and feminine consciousness through a poetic cinematic language rooted in quiet rhythm, symbolic imagery, and restrained emotional performance, creating a powerful balance between magical realism and contemporary human cinema.

Synopsis:

In a quiet rural world governed by invisible rules, Jeanne slowly discovers that her body, voice, and place in the world do not align with what society expects from her. Surrounded by judgment, fear, and subtle forms of male dominance, the young girl begins to build her own form of resistance — not through violence or rebellion, but through silence, refusal, and the courage to protect herself.

Within the film, the nettle plant becomes a visual metaphor for fragility and defense at the same time; a living presence that stings anyone attempting to approach it without care, much like Jeanne herself as she learns to draw her own boundaries.

Through delicate imagery, natural light, and an intimate visual rhythm, the film transforms everyday gestures into expressions of fear, awakening, and self-awareness, crafting a cinematic experience that moves between magical realism and contemplative modern cinema.

About the Director:

Born in Brussels in 1984, Toni Hilgersson graduated from INRACI in cinematography. He works as a writer, director, and editor, developing a personal cinematic language deeply connected to magical realism, nature, and visual poetry.

Since 2012, he has dedicated a large part of his life to raising his two children in a rural environment, an experience that strongly shaped the emotional sensitivity and visual atmosphere of his films. His short films for cinema and television are known for their quiet cinematic rhythm, human-centered storytelling, and subtle exploration of childhood, identity, and emotional vulnerability.