Dominique and Fiona Abel & Gordon
A duo of actor-directors formed by Belgian Dominique Abel, born in 1957 in Thuin, and Canadian Fiona Gordon, born in 1957 in Melbourne.
Former students of the École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, where they met in the early 1980s, Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon first made their name through their theatrical creations. They went on to direct three short films together (Merci Cupidon, Rosita, Walking on the Wild Side) before making their feature début with Iceberg (2005), co-directed with Bruno Romy. In the tradition of early burlesque cinema and its French heirs (Jacques Tati, Pierre Étaix), the Belgian comic duo deploy a clownish filmic world that reinvents reality through the poetry of bodies, as in Rumba (Critics’ Week – 2008) and The Fairy (Directors’ Fortnight – 2011). In Lost in Paris (Telluride Film Festival – 2016), a wacky urban fable on the Parisian margins, Emmanuelle Riva made her last appearance on film. In The Falling Star (Locarno Festival - 2023), their usual burlesque merges with film noir archetypes.
© Laurent Thurin-Nal
L'Iceberg - co-directed with Bruno Romy (2005) ; Rumba - co-directed with Bruno Romy (2007) ; The Fairy - co-directed with Bruno Romy (2011) ; Lost in Paris (2017) ; The Falling Star (2023)