"Tomato": a short film about faith, solitude and the end of life
With Tomate, director Pierre Llorca-Dauba has created an intimate, sensory short that explores how people continue to believe when the world no longer seems to respond. With its pared-down mise-en-scène and deep reflection on the way we look at things, the film plunges us into the day-to-day life of an elderly couple living in a caravan, isolated in the middle of a land that has become almost barren.
A story suspended in a world that no longer produces anything
The story takes place in the south of France, in a landscape marked by the exhaustion of life. Alain and Colette, both in their 80s, live their lives in a silent routine of tired planting and repeated gestures. The gradual disappearance of pollinating insects has made the crops unproductive. Nature is still there, dense and visible, but it no longer produces anything. It is in this suspended space that a tiny event appears: a red tomato, intact, discovered in the middle of dry earth.
For Alain, this tomato immediately becomes a sign. Proof that something can still grow, that a future is still possible despite the silent collapse that surrounds them. Colette, on the other hand, rejects this projection. Where Alain sees promise, she sees concrete fruit, living matter that must be consumed before it too disappears. Through this intimate conflict, “Tomate” questions our need to believe, but also the way in which images transform our relationship with reality.
A reflection on belief and the gaze
In his statement of intent, Pierre Llorca-Dauba explains that he wants to question “what we choose to believe when the world no longer gives us clear signs”. The director never seeks to oppose hope and lucidity head-on. Instead, he films a permanent in-between, where believing becomes a necessity for survival as much as a danger. The tomato is not presented as a miracle, but as a test. An apparition that reveals the flaws in the couple’s relationship and the fragility of each of them.
This reflection is directly reflected in the mise en scène. The film adopts fixed frames, composed with great pictorial rigour. The characters are often enclosed in narrow spaces, cut off by objects, windows or partitions. The caravan becomes both a refuge and a prison, a space where people continue to live together despite the wear and tear of time and feelings.
A naturalist, organic aesthetic
The artistic direction is based on a poor, organic aesthetic. The colours are earthy, the materials worn, the objects repaired rather than replaced. Nothing is decorative. Each element tells a story of how to survive with very little. The caravan, inspired by French models from the 1980s, is designed as a place that has been lived in for years: yellowed tapestries, faded curtains, dented basins, washing hung in the wind. In this deliberately sober environment, the tomato becomes the only truly vibrant element.
The work on the image also plays an essential role. The photography favours a naturalist light, crushed by the sun outside and softer inside the caravan. The bodies bear the marks of time: deep wrinkles, sun-scarred skin, gestures slowed by age. The camera takes the time to observe these silent presences, letting the shots linger to give a physical sense of fatigue and waiting.
A world of sound built around silence
The sound, too, contributes to this sense of a world in retreat. Dialogue is rare. The wind, insects, the rustling of fabric and footsteps on the ground become narrative elements in their own right. When Alain discovers the tomato, the soundscape gradually empties out, as if the character has cut himself off from reality to enter a form of inner projection.
The influences claimed by the team run discreetly through the project: the contemplative cinema of Andreï Tarkovski, Chantal Akerman’s attention to everyday gestures, and the spiritual and political dimension of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s cinema. Yet “Tomate” builds an identity of its own, driven by a desire to film the infra-ordinary and the most modest of signs.
A short film about hope in a tired world
Through this minimalist narrative, Pierre Llorca-Dauba and his team offer a contemporary reflection on our relationship with life, hope and images. In a tired world where everything seems to be slowly fading away, “Tomato” shows how a simple fruit can become the medium for our beliefs, our fears and our persistent need to find meaning.
Still in post-production, the film will be screened at the Cinécréatis Grand Jury at the Pathé Odysseum cinema in Montpellier in early July. Students and their families will have the opportunity to see the film on the big screen.