BEFORE / AFTER

Two thirty-year-old loners discover, following a chance encounter, their shared desire to see their reflections in the mirror differently and decide to embark on a journey together from Belgium to Istanbul (in the days after Erdogan’s recent re-election) to undergo hair transplant procedures. Medical tourism meets reincarnation, and ultimately the need for communication and connection between two young men who simply wish to feel good about themselves again. On the way, they develop a fleeting yet tender (b)romance, in Manoël Dupont’s original, unclassified feature debut. Imbued with a strange beauty through its simplicity and its premise, which is entirely unsuitable for cinema, the film tests, among others, the line between fiction and its documentary like texture as it puts its two amateur protagonists through the actual aesthetic procedure. Winner of a Special Mention at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.