À QUI LE MONDE
BLOOMING
Marina Russo Villani, Victor Missud / Benin, France / 2024 / 45 min / Colour
Ganvié is a village on the shores of Lake Nokoué, in southern Benin. Founded three hundred years ago by slave traders, today it is a tourist attraction thanks to its stilt houses, earning it the nickname “Black Venice.” Its people, who once resisted colonization and now endure the pressures of mass tourism, are facing a new “invader”: the water hyacinth. Originally introduced to beautify hotels and upscale homes, this plant reproduces at such a staggering pace that it is choking the lake, threatening the lives of other plants, fish, and humans. The more the locals struggle to uproot it, the more it grows back—resilient, relentless, and indifferent to their efforts. A small company attempts to transform this scourge into a resource, but at the cost of exhausting labor. The documentary moves between realism and symbolism, suspended between reality and dreamlike visions. The water hyacinth seems to emerge from a wound on the living skin of these people, only to consume them, covering them as it covers the surface of the lake, suffocating them as it suffocates the animals and the other plants.
Marina Russo Villani
After earning a degree in Art Economics at Bocconi University in Milan, she specialized in Film and Performing Arts at Sorbonne Nouvelle and in Screenwriting at Paris Ouest-Nanterre. Her debut work Les Restes (2018) won the Sirar Prize. As a photographer, she has received accolades at the Tokyo International Photo Awards and the International Photography Awards.
Victor Missud
A director originally from Toulouse, he lives between France and Palermo. He directed La forêt de l’espace (2019), which received special mentions at Visions du Réel, IFF Rotterdam, and Hors Pistes Centre Pompidou. His latest documentary work is À qui le monde (2024).
