The Enemy
Somewhere, in some unnamed country, a civil war rages on, leaving only destruction. A small commando falls into an ambush set up by a deadly sniper. The leader (Denis Lavant) watches as his men fall one by one. But who is the enemy?
Co-Production
Baal Films
Byzance
Film Cinema
1994
Direction Short film 13 min
FRANCE
Scenario
Hervé Renoh
Staring
Denis Lavant
Marc Duret
Maureen Harrison
Olivier Rabourdin
The Enemy (L’Ennemi) is the last short film I directed before moving on to feature, commercials and television movies. I wrote, directed and produced this homage to classic war films.
Selected in more than 60 festivals across the world, my ultimate short was my passport to feature and television directing, and was rewarded in Clermont-Ferrand (Youth Jury Prize), Venezia (Best Direction), Oslo (Best Film), Athens (Best Direction), Edimbourg (Grand Jury Prize, Best Film), New York (Best Photography), Valladolid, Tokyo, Djakarta, Larissa…
Hervé Renoh's film is one of those emerging from every programs visible these days in Clermont-Ferrand. These exhausted ``warriors`` will fall under the bullets of a mysterious sniper, whose childish character reveals the perversion to which ends any ``civil`` war. Civilization, precisely, here is gone and, with it, one of the main attributes of the human species, language. One expresses oneself only by gestures and borborygms. (...) This sensitivity to language is probably to be found in the life of the young director, who told us that he spent most of his life abroad, from one country to another ... THE ENEMY allows him to be understood across borders. It revives, by the way, with the best lessons of silent movies.
