Belleville Baby

Mia Engberg : 2013

A long distance call from a long lost lover makes Mia reminisce about their common past. She remembers the spring when they met in Paris, the riots, the vespa and the cat named Baby. As a film student, Mia Engberg lived in the Parisian district of Belleville. Today, this wild episode of her life is far behind her. She is now a mother with a young daughter and lives in Sweden. One day, a voice from the past bursts into her life. It is Vincent, the love of her life, who suddenly abandoned her years ago. Calling from Paris, he asks her to recount memories of their time together. After eight years in prison he is seeking to reconstruct his earlier life and the memories that now escape him. But Mia is reluctant to dig up the past. In long telephone conversations and films shot using his mobile phone, Vincent takes stock of his life and tells the story of the poor boy from the banlieue who slid inexorably into crime. Meanwhile, Mia goes through her filmed diaries and recalls a love affair which at the time defied convention. A film about love, time and things that got lost along the way. A personal exploration of how one's self at each moment is affected by hidden memories and elusive inner layers. The film premiered at Göteborg International Film Festival 2013 where it received the Jury's Special Mention, and screened in the Panorama Dokumente section at Berlin International Film Festival 2013.