La Peur, petit chasseur

Laurent Achard made La peur, petit chasseur several years after his first feature film (Plus qu’hier moins que demain), while the memory of his short films from the 1990s was still vivid. So, through the character of a young boy confronted this time by the violence of the family unit, the filmmaker followed in the wake of Dimanche ou les fantômes and Une odeur de géranium, before the success of this short (notably winning an award at Clermont-Ferrand) enabled him to direct Demented, his second feature, based on identical themes. If La peur, petit chasseur is so impressive, it is mainly due to its choice of extreme minimalism, favouring a static frame and single sequence shot, sparse dialogue and close-ups. A story is gleaned between the lines, projected by the viewer onto the flat façade of a provincial home, a domestic space that is theoretically protective but has become a place of fear, violence, and taboo.