Though it may surprise viewers plunged into the film’s disoriented universe, a bright streak of normality runs through 57,000 Kilometers Between Us. The debut feature from French photographer and video artist Delphine Kreuter tracks a daisy chain of relationships in one hyperactively dysfunctional family. Her means are digital, her method purposeful randomness, her material aggressively au courant: transsexualism, global adoption, webcams, and multiplayer gaming. The plot centers on Nat who keeps to her room to further two online flirtations. One, an instant-message exchange with a man who likes to act like a baby; the other, conducted via a video game with Adrien, a teenager dying in sterilized seclusion. Though it’s played out with a refreshing lack of sentimentality, the romance between Nat and Adrien emerges as the picture’s heart, a heart Kreuter wastes no time in breaking. Eventually, 57,000 Kilometers coheres around a single theme, Kreuter’s update to E.M. Forster’s ageless plea: Only connect. – Peter Scarlet
Director:
Delphine Kreuter (b. 1973, Lyon) studied modern literature and is an established photographer. In 1997, she showed her photographs for the first time in Berlin and at the renowned Alain Gutharc Gallery in Paris. The same year, she won the Paris Photo Prize. Kreuter has worked closely with Christian Lacroix and published four monographs. She is currently showing at the “J’embrasse pas” show at Yvon Lambert. She holds a Villa Médicis Hors Les Murs grant for 2008. A mixed media artist, Kreuter also works as a draftswoman, an illustrator, a video artist, and a filmmaker,and 57,000 Kilometers Between Us is her first feature.