This Is Where I Sleep - Alisa
2013 · 5m · Canada
Directed by Annick De Vries, Ernest Godin, Eza Paventi
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, tender
Belgian boarding student Alisa balances academic lessons with classical dance training, enduring tiring days away from her parents in pursuit of her dream of becoming a prima ballerina.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's competent coming-of-age material, sure, but there's nothing here that flips the script on the sacrificial artist narrative—just another film genuflecting at the altar of the dream, no subversion, no angle that makes you wince.
Three directors working in concert with the NFB tradition of intimate portraiture, constructing a formally elegant study of discipline and longing that earns its tenderness through patient observation rather than sentiment.
The choice to render Alisa's exhaustion through the grain and rhythm of rehearsal footage—letting the body's repetition do the emotional work rather than forcing a breakthrough moment—is what separates this from the usual inspirational dance film.