David Constantin
BIO
He is Mauritian writer-director and producer. After studying at ENSAV in France, he set up Caméléon Production in Mauritius, where he produces all his own films as well as numerous short films by young Mauritian directors. David’s films deal with the profound changes taking place in modern society and their impact on human relationships.
With his first film, Diego L’Interdite, he won the Grand Prix Européen des Premiers Films in Switzerland in 2002. In 2014, his first feature film, Lonbraz Kann, was selected in more than thirty international festivals and won six awards, including Best Screenplay at the Durban International Film Festival, Best Film at FCAT (Spain) and Le Papillon d’Argent at Cinémondes (France).
Committed to the development of cinematography in the Indian Ocean, David Constantin is the founder of the Association Porteurs d’Images and the Festival Île Courts, the Mauritius International Short Film Festival. Simin Zetwal is his 2nd feature film.
FILMOGRAPHY
2002 Diego ’interdite; medium-length documentary
2007 Les Accords De Bella; medium-length documentary
2014 Lonbraz Kann; feature film
2021 Grat La Mer Pintir Lesiel; documentary
2022 Simin Zetwal; feature film
Work in progress La Saignée documentary
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
SIMIN ZETWAL is the story of three wandering beings on a small isolated island in the Indian Ocean: Mauritius.
At the eastern tip of our continent, where Africa meets India, Mauritius is a micro-society of contradictions, lost between tradition and modernity, between a race for development on the Western model and a way of life where traditions, religions and ancestral beliefs still hold an important place.
I wanted to focus on this ambiguity through the main characters, especially Ronaldo, who dreams of wealth and social success, and is confronted overnight with the many contradictions of his own personality and that of his island.
Will he trust his smartphone or Ajeya, who speaks to him from the stars? Will he let himself be carried away by his quest for wealth, or by the spiritual quest proposed to him? Embarking on a journey across an island inhabited by beings who are sometimes disturbing, sometimes endearing, sometimes eccentric, SIMIN ZETWAL tells the story of three characters in search of their own humanity.