2023-05-31 09:51:41
Director Mélissa Drigeard signs with “Hawaii” a jubilant film regarding friends on vacation who, convinced that they are going to die following a missile alert, tell each other everything they have never dared to confess. Except that the alert was false and that the holidays have only just begun.
On January 13, 2018 in the morning, a North Korean ballistic missile warning urging residents to take shelter caused panic for more than thirty minutes on the island of Hawaii before being formally denied by the authorities. In question, the triggering by mistake of a message from the national alert system. This real news item inspired French director Mélissa Drigeard (“Never on the first night”, “Even if you love me”, “Everything smiles at us”) and her accomplice and co-author Vincent Juillet to imagine a film that would weave together around human relationships.
Benefiting from a five-star cast (Élodie Bouchez, Bérénice Bejo, Pierre Deladonchamps, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Eye Haïdara, Thomas Scimeca, Manu Payet, William Lebghil and Émilie Caen), the feature film tells the story of a band of old friends who, like every year, come to spend a week’s vacation with one of their friends who have gone to Hawaii. Confined together during the missile alert, the friends think they are living their last moments. Years of unspoken words, secrets, desires and lies then rebound and turn into a settling of scores. And when they realize it’s a false alarm, it’s too late to turn back…
>> To see, the trailer of the film:
Deception, desire and jealousies
The film tackles several themes such as the relationship to deception, to desire, to secrecy, to money, to those who, within a group of friends, have been more successful than others and to jealousies, latent, who as a result.
“All the characters go through little arrangements with themselves. But I love people for what they have that is most beautiful and most vile, I really like their weaknesses, their faults, everything that overflows”, indicates Mélissa Drigeard in her film’s press kit.
A ruined vacation
Film critic at the RTS, Philippe Congiusti loved this film regarding these ruined holidays. “‘Hawaii’ is a hilarious reflection on friendship, with dialogues that fuse and misunderstandings. Friendship and frankness obviously do not go together very well. It’s tasty, I had a blast and the actors and actresses too while playing this film, it is transmitted on the screen”.
Initiated just following confinement, the film was shot on the island of Reunion, Hawaii being still inaccessible due to the pandemic. “It was like magic to be together, especially since we were aware that we were incredibly lucky to have been able to travel without anyone catching the Covid. It was very joyful!”, confirms the director.
Interview by Anne Laure Gannac
Adaptation web: Melissa Hartel
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