France
2018
16'
Summary
The Real Thing is a VR journey into a copy of our world. Around China’s largest cities, entire neighbourhoods have been inspired by foreign models. The film explores the most stunning of these “fake cities”. It travels from Paris to London and Venice - without leaving China. The inhabitants guide us in the parallel world where they have chosen to live. As VR leads the way to virtual tourism, copycat cities compete to offer a real experience of static travel. Walking the thin line between reality and virtuality, this documentary combines both to enhance a whole new feeling of ubiquity. Production : Artline Films, DVgroup, ARTE France
Galerie
Benoit Felici
Director
Benoit Felici is a French-Italian filmmaker graduated from the ZeLIG film school in Italy. His previous film “Unfinished Italy” was a journey into the remains of incomplete buildings and infrastructure, scattered throughout rural Italy, and which had turned into ruins. The film received 15 international awards (Documenta Madrid, Premiers Plans d’Angers) and was screened widely in the international film festivals circuit. In THE REAL THING, Benoit follows the path that led him to "Unfinished Italy" and brings his reflection to a new focus: the world’s architectural replicas, the reality of life in fake surroundings. In 2013 Benoit Felici received the Foundation Lagardère’s Excellence Grant as a documentary author.