Denis Lavant: Sovereign Design

Parisian actor Denis Lavant charges headlong into the absurd, anointed with a child's crown and a steely determination, in French director Philippe Prouff's short Waster. Made in collaboration with Croatian-born German fashion designer Damir Doma, whose folkloristic spring 2011 collection is incorporated, the 11-minute film (excerpted on NOWNESS today) was shot in the untamed environs of Ireland's Inishmaan island. Waster takes inspiration from Albert Camus's essay “The Myth of Sisyphus,” with Lavant starring as the eponymous hero: a king trapped in an existential loop that sees him painstakingly build the walls of his castle before destroying his progress. Pointedly, “waster” is a homonym for a prop weapon. “This man’s answer to the absurdity of his life is to struggle perpetually. It's representative of the human condition, a conflict between what we want from life, and what we find in it,” Prouff explains. Despite the frustrating premise, the narrative's message is ultimately one of empowerment. “Our fate is our own,” the director says, “and life is purely what we make of it.” The full version can be seen tomorrow on the Walter Films website.