One evening, two robbers try to hold up a gas station. They point their guns at the cashier, who despite their yelling, fails to react the way they’d expected…
Diploma project (2016) by Maxime Pillonel
Fiction / 9 min
Synopsis
One evening, two robbers try to hold up a gas station. They point their guns at the cashier, who despite their yelling, fails to react the way they’d expected…
Comment
The din of an automatic door slamming. The din of a freezer motor. The deafening ventilation of an air conditioner. A very close-up on a hearing aid. Welcome to the ear of Martien, a young man with a hearing impairment, employed in a gas station, who, one night, is going to undergo an extraordinary experience... Maxime Pillonel's challenge is to make us see, hear and, above all, make his handicap an expressive force, just like his hero. The distortion of the sounds, the precision of the deaf dialogues, the sustained rhythm of the editing, the overkill of characters, each one more out of place than the other, make this comedy a fable on the difference. The choice in Martian is to make us laugh, and here, crack, boom, wizzz, it works!
Bruno Deville / Director
BA FILM STUDIES
with Marie-Eve Hildbrand
The 2026 documentary film workshop for 1st year students was lead by swiss director Marie-Eve Hildbrand.
BA FILM STUDIES
with Verena Paravel
The 2026 documentary film workshop for 2nd year students was lead by french director and visual anthropologist Verena Paravel.
BA FILM STUDIES
with Marie-Elsa Sgualdo
The 2026 fiction film workshop for 2nd year students was lead by swiss director Marie-Elsa Sgualdo.
BA FILM STUDIES
Workshop led by Michael William Farino, Jonathan Ricardo Argudo and Herbert Mayer and given to students in the Bachelor's degree programmes in Cinema and Industrial Design.
BA FILM STUDIES
by Noé Bregnard, Eva Rust, Victor Durand Matinella, Lou Haenggi, Samuel Harari, Hana Magimel, Nolan Grando, Mileny Viera de Andrade, Zélia Zanone
Second-year Bachelor's students attended a workshop with Belgian cinematographer Benoît Dervaux, known for his work on the Dardenne brothers' films. He was responsible for the cinematography on the Swiss films Laissez-moi by Maxime Rappaz (2023) and À bras-le-corps by Marie-Elsa Sgualdo (2025).