NEW SKIN
The project
La Mue is a very personal project from its producer and director, Alix Gentil.
Origins
Alix has used as an inspiration, among other things, her many years living abroad – 2 years in the States – and 9 years in Barcelona, where she still resides.
This Franco-Spanish story first took the form of a short story, and then became a feature film throughout Alix's repeated trips from her native land to her adoptive one.
The theme of coming home has always been quite present in Alix’s life, and in those of the people around her in Barcelona. It’s a very cosmopolitan city where people come and go. Coming “home” means going back to a place that apparently stays the same, and yet life goes on. It is both familiar and strange.
Synopsis
Eva comes back home, Iris leaves the nest.
La Mue takes places when these two sisters' paths cross for a week.
Eva resurfaces after five years of absence in her newly rebuilt world. Iris is about to leave the family nest in the shadow of her sister's return.
They have opposite ways, and yet they both are searching for the same thing - to find their place.
THE MOVIE
No one thought she would be coming back, and even her parents don’t know whether to be happy or if they should fear an upcoming departure.
Each reencounter is a new challenge for Eva, everyone has gone on with their lives: Iris, her younger sister, Tomás, her ex-boyfriend, her friends.
Eva looks for a way to find her place in an environment where she’s always felt confined, whilst Iris is looking for her place in the world, trying not to define herself through her life’s great tragedy, her sister’s disappearance.
Why "La Mue?
La Mue = shedding skin, sloughing.
SLOUGH ;MIDDLE ENGLISH - SLUGHE, SLOUH - SKIN OF A SNAKE
1. noun - the outer layer of the skin of a snake, which is cast off periodically.
2. verb - to be or become shed or cast off, as the slough of a snake.
3. to cast off a slough: to dispose or get rid of; cast
Snake skin
The snake grows, but not its skin.
In order to stay alive, the snake has to leave behind its old skin.
Eva's character goes through this painful transformation.
From chrysalis to butterfly
Caterpillars slough into a chrysalis.
And turn into beautiful butterflies.
Iris's sloughing can be seen when she leaves the nest.
Sloughing means shedding off one's skin. It means starting a new life. Abandoning the old, the visible-- growing up.
It means “allowing for the perfect insect to appear” (Larousse).