Oh What a Wonderful Feeling
2016 · 15m · Canada
Directed by François Jaros
Genres: drama, fantasy, surrealism
A young woman finds her place within a roadside harem at a nighttime truck stop, an ominous playground where sexual desire and stranger occurrences play out just beyond the edge of the frame. A surreal, Lynchian portrait that suggests a bigger, meaner world happening off-screen.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Jaros does what most filmmakers are too scared to attempt—he makes the *absence* more terrifying than any explicit horror could be, letting the truck stop harem exist as pure suggestion and dread. This is the kind of premise that makes programmers nervous and Felix vindicated.
The film's deliberate occlusion recalls the off-screen space in classical cinema—Bresson, early Polanski—where what we don't see becomes the film's true subject; the sensual surrealism here is formally rigorous in its restraint.
The decision to keep the camera turned inward, observing only gesture and expression while the threat unfolds beyond the frame, transforms a minimal setting into something claustrophobic and hypnotic—one compositional choice that rewires the entire psychological contract with the viewer.
Reviews
A powerfully chilling film that will make you want to crawl out of your skin... an uncannily honest depiction of humanity in all its gritty glory.
Festivals
- Cannes – Semaine de la Critique 2016
- Best Short Film - Gijón International Film Festival 2016, Best Short Film
- Special Jury Mention Narrative Short – Slamdance 2017, Special Jury Mention
- Best Film – Beijing International Short Film Festival 2017, Best Film
- Mention honorable - Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur 2017, Mention honorable
- Prix Coup de Cœur - Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois 2017, Prix Coup de Cœur
- Best Editing - Bucharest Short Film Festival 2017, Best Editing