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To Exist Under Permanent Suspicion
by Valentin Noujaïm
France, 2024, 14’30”
Presented at the 17th edition of Lo schermo dell’arte, 2024
SCREENPLAY: Valentin Noujaïm
PHOTOGRAPHY: Alex Brack
EDITING: Valentin Noujaïm
SOUND: John Flindt Hussein
MUSIC: Space Afrika
PHOTOGRAPHY: Alex Brack
EDITING: Valentin Noujaïm
SOUND: John Flindt Hussein
MUSIC: Space Afrika
PRODUCER: Manon Messiant
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION COMPANY: Iliade et Films
ov: French; st: English, Italian
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION COMPANY: Iliade et Films
ov: French; st: English, Italian
Since 2022, Franco-Lebanese artist Valentin Noujaïm has been working on a trilogy set in the Parisian financial district of La Défense, depicted as a futuristic labyrinth that traps souls between concrete and glass, with its towers and empty promises of liberal prosperity. In To Exist Under Permanent Suspicion, the second video of the trilogy, Claire (played by Kayije Kagame, lead actress in Alice Diop’s film Saint Omer) is a businesswoman designing a new skyscraper. The cold and gray workplace amplifies her loneliness, pushing her to the brink of collapse. The office becomes a prison, and the only way out is to set it on fire and kill her white-collar colleagues. A psychological horror with noir aesthetics inspired by the 1990s, with To Exist Under Permanent Suspicion the artist provides a gendered perspective on the assaults that Black women face in the workplace.
The third video of the trilogy La defense III – Demons to Diamonds, produced with the VISIO Production Fund, is currently in development.
Valentin Noujaïm (France, 1991) is a Franco-Lebanese artist and filmmaker. He has taken part in group exhibitions, including Salon de Montrouge; Saatchi Gallery, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris.
His films have been supported by prestigious funding organizations and selected for various international festivals.
His films have been supported by prestigious funding organizations and selected for various international festivals.
Selected Filmography
2023 Pacific Club; 2022 Saturnalia; 2021 Daughters of Destiny; 2020/2021 Venus Retrograde; 2019 The Blue Star; Before She Forgets Heliopolis.
2023 Pacific Club; 2022 Saturnalia; 2021 Daughters of Destiny; 2020/2021 Venus Retrograde; 2019 The Blue Star; Before She Forgets Heliopolis.