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• Trailer, 5 photo(s)

Year of production : 2016

Director(s) : Charlotte SCHIOLER
Writer(s) : Charlotte SCHIOLER
Cast : Charlotte SCHIOLER, Elsa WOLLIASTON, Alain FIGLARZ

On his first night staying at Babette’s apartment, Edo glimpses the tail of a mouse scurrying out of his room. The next evening, they find a white mouse sitting on the kitchen table. Babette moves to smash it with a frying pan but Edo saves it. He offers it some nuts, and Mousey takes up residence.
Babette came from Denmark to Paris, the capital of romantic love, to join a dance company. Edo, an African drummer, is escaping the war in his native Congo by way of a gig in Paris.

After two weeks paid for by his impresario, Babette offers Edo the opportunity to cover his rent playing the drum for her next performance. As their relationship grows intimate, Mousey becomes the couple’s surrogate child spending time with them at home and even stowing away to their rehearsals.

Edo takes on other gigs to make ends meet; and resolves to apply for political asylum. But the odds are stacked against him. When he is rejected he asks Babette to marry him. She cannot accept that the relationship might be based solely on immediate need; and counters by setting up a meeting with an immigration lawyer arguing for Edo’s extraordinary musical talent.

To Edo, the idea of obtaining residency based on playing the drums, a skill that earns you little respect in Congo, is for the least surrealistic. As Babette and Edo navigate conflicting expectations and Edo begins to break away, Mousey bears witness and stands as a confidante.

Eventually Edo admits to Babette that he is marrying somebody else; he has obligations towards his family back home and cannot live with the risk of being sent back to the war in Congo.

The fate of Mousey hangs in the balance. Maybe the relationship is destined to be as fragile and short-lived as she is.