“Premiered at last year’s Locarno Film Festival, Le Besco’s latest, Bas-fonds, observes three women living, per the Locarno program note, ‘on the outskirts of civilization’ (in reality, somewhere in the French provinces). Le Besco shows less interest in the how and why of her setting than in the here and now—the carefully observed, moment-by-moment realities of a group of people who seem to be devising their own reality as they go along. Nor does she exploit the material for its superficial lurid qualities. And as in Le Besco’s other work, Bas-fonds extends to the viewer a feeling of being pulled so deeply inside this alternate universe that we ourselves lose all sense of which way is up. Indeed, somehow this frequently startling and profoundly unpleasant film ends up in a place of odd tenderness and beauty.”

—Scott Foundas, Film Comment January/February 2011

You might also be interested in: Patric Chiha's Domaine and Gianfranco Rosi's El Sicario, Room 164.

Please note: Unfortunately, Islid Le Besco will not be in attendance. There will be no reception on the Opening Night of Film Comment Selects.