The deep Ardennes. Little shown in the cinema. The imagination, the mentality and the local tourism are still impregnated with these apparitions of the Virgin that occurred in the 30’s, mainly in Beauraing and Banneux.
I did not want to repeat in “JACQUES A VU” the history of the apparitions. They are only a historical background. But I tried to imagine what would happen if today, in the 2010s, a comparable phenomenon were to occur again.
Deserted by the youth, the villages of the Ardennes are now repopulated by neo-rurals who buy and renovate houses, in search of a daily life that they hope is less stressful. But that’s not all : amusement parks and other vacation centers are proliferating, and not only in Wallonia. They have become, especially in times of crisis, artificial substitutes for exoticism, the compensation for distant trips that one can no longer afford. They offer oases of immediate happiness and their promotion is reminiscent of the messages of certain sects.
I also found it amusing to set up resonances (via the dambiance music in particular) between an ad for the return to the countryside, a Funny Park and the Vatican! Don’t they all promise corners of paradise, each in their own way.
A contemporary fable, JACQUES A VU is therefore a dive into the deep countryside, its economic-ecological contradictions and its imaginary world, both earthy and magical.