This Is Where I Sleep - Elsa
2013 · 5m · Canada
Directed by Annick De Vries, Ernest Godin, Eza Paventi
Genres: coming-of-age, documentary, family
Tones: contemplative, tender, whimsical
In Kigali, Rwanda, Elsa grows up surrounded by the wild animals of her country, from zebras to giraffes, and imagines becoming a veterinarian one day.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A gentle coming-of-age doc about a kid who likes animals—it's exactly the kind of well-meaning, consensus-safe film that puts me to sleep, even if the Rwandan setting gives it a veneer of exoticism.
Three directors collaborate on a formally restrained portrait of childhood aspiration set against Rwanda's fauna; the film's restraint and observational clarity situate it in the documentary-as-intimate-essay tradition.
The whole film hinges on how the directors let Elsa's imagination unspool through her own gaze rather than voiceover—that single choice to trust her perspective transforms a simple premise into something genuinely alive.