Après la Nage

All Shorts film of Jan Kounen Director

Historical idioms garnish our language but are often hard to translate. This comedy helps to illustrate them and tells the story of two Austrian neighbours, who become enamoured. “Foam-beater" (boaster) Hanspeter throws an eye after an addleheaded Annemarie, but she just "shows him the bird" (indicates that he is chuckoo). He must "jump over his shadow" (take the plunge) and get a foot in her door. Amusement for proverb fans who love to make whoopee, gaze into the pale blue yonder, or get to the point.

“I’m guessing we are out somewhere right now, and you’ve said to me, ‘Go to your happy place.’ This is my happy place.” - Two friends experience a quaint relocation. While Jon enjoys the breeze, Bradley nags with questions.

A student, a goddess and a dog meet under quaint circumstances in a turned world. This miniature can be read as a metaphor about tunnel vision and the muse it takes to wake up!

When forest animals invade our cities, the world is in disarray. Office vixen Fiona struggles with her banana phone addiction. Will she succumb to it? Temperamental bunny Barbara only gives her stag sugar daddy Nestor his special massage, after he dines her and plays the big spender. This obscure short film pinpoints postmodern tropes of consumerism, eroticism, and art with an homage to the theater stage and references to literature. This work uses a fantasy language and needs no subtitles.

Helen suffers from a rare fear of chalk. One day she feels encroached by several chalk figures in Helsinki and decides to confront her fear. In the Amos Rex museum, she discovers the works of Keith Haring in a catalogue and adapts his style to her needs for catharsis.

Fred is a drag queen performing on a cabaret stage when he learns that his father, Jean, has died. In the emergency room, he comes face to face with his ghost. Over the three days following this event, Fred and his sister Cassandre try to organize Jean's funeral while Fred seems to be the only one to see him.

The story, in three stages, of a friendship between three guys. They have taken different paths, but find themselves equally faced with the failure of their lives. The parody is not exempt from what remains a fine analysis of behavior and environment. For these three Quebecers are, in a way, us, as we have been rendered by a society in search of itself.