PHANTOM LOVE
by Nina Menkès, Fiction, 87', 2007, 35mm, USA
With Marina Shoif, Juliette Marquis, Bobby Naderi, Yelena Apartseva

Lulu, a very beautiful but isolated woman, leads a highly marginalized life, divided by her time at home and at a casino where she works as a croupier. Lulu’s lover is emotionally disconnected from her, her younger sister is in the midst of a psychotic breakdown, and her mother is a critical, destructive nag. Phantom Love shows Lulu’s descent into self, by which she begins to release herself from the surrounding violence. The film is a highly surreal visualization of an internal landscape, a powerful drama about an enmeshed family, in which violence and trauma are steadily percolating, just beneath the surface.

NINA MENKES
Nina Menkes was born in Michigan and grew up mainly in Berkeley, California. A graduated from the UCLA Film School, she has taught film directing in California and India. She has produced, written, directed, shot and edited her films: A soft warrior (1981), The great sadness of Zohara (1983), Magdalena Viraga (1986) at Créteil Compétition (1985, 1987) Queen of diamonds (1991),
The bloody child (1996), The crazy blood female center (2000), Massaker (2005). Her last project is Heatstroke.