Les enfants de Val d'Europe

2017
Video full HD, colour, sound, 28'26"
Voiceover: Ramsey Arnaoot, Gwendal Coulon, Margaux Duseigneur, Manon Klein, François Sabourin
Music: Norman Bambi
Additional music: Stéphane Bellity, Wilfried Thierry
 

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Les enfants de Val d'Europe​ studies and portrays the youth of Val d'Europe, a new town located 35 kilometers from Paris. Built around Disneyland theme park, the distinctive landscape of Val d'Europe area shapes the dreams, hopes and disillusionment of each of its inhabitants. In 1987 an agreement between the French State, local authorities, the RATP and the Walt Disney Company led to a 30-year public-private partnership. EuroDisney was granted priority rights to purchase land, and committed to developing residential neighborhoods, offices and economic activities, gradually imposing its imprint – both postmodernist and sanitized – on the area now called Val d'Europe. Disneyland Paris opened in 1992, and now we can speak with the first generation of young adults who grew up in the area, alongside the park. How does one live day-to-day in a place that appears to offer an unreal relationship to the world? How has Disney’s presence in the area affected the childhood and adolescence of these young people? Les enfants de Val d'Europe juxtaposes the landscapes of the Val d’Europe with the words of its inhabitants. Interviews with young adults who grew up around Val d'Europe and the Disneyland Paris amusement park form an augmented soundtrack to a journey through often deserted landscapes.