SISTER

Director's Statement

Long after I had started on the story of SISTER, the memory of a young boy suddenly came back to me. I grew up in the shadow of the Jura Mountains, where going up to a winter resort to ski was part of our everyday life. There was a boy who often used to come skiing on his own, whilst we were always in a group. He skied very poorly, yet blasted flat-out down the pistes, as if he was getting high from the speed and risk. He seemed to derive such pleasure from being “up there”. This boy intrigued me, and then I found out that he was banned from the mountain restaurants because he was suspected of stealing from customers. The people who worked in the resort advised us to keep an eye on our things and to keep away from him. But this little thief continued to fascinate me, perhaps because he didn't really belong in such a setting, not coming from the social class that has the money to pay for ski equipment and lift passes. His stealing carried on and he ended up being permanently banned from riding up to the resort in the cable car. This young thief − without any friends, skiing like a madman on the snow-covered pistes of the Jura − remained an anonymous mystery for me. At the time, I was barely twelve years old, the same age as Simon in the film, and I still remember him.