Reflective Encounters

“Filmed with a handheld camera, bringing us close to the main character in every position possible as if we could merge with him in a flow of life, Guillaume Senez develops a cinema of the everyday: direct and without artifice. As we open on the intimacy of a corridor leading to an unwelcoming building, the film introduces us to a father in the midst of his personal journey. The grey and misty tones of a Belgian suburban neighbourhood seem to match the mental space of the character with whom we move in rhythm as if to better feel his movements, his hesitations, both in the gentle moments and in the hardest ones. Becoming one with him, the director asks us to better perceive his feelings and his loss of bearings.

Focusing on humanity and feelings, Walk With Kings lingers on the borderline between the way of being and one’s appearance. Parent-child relationships are a central theme, as well as the relationship to oneself, at a time in life when all senses seem to be blurred. Should one's own mental space be forsaken for the well-being of another's mind? This is not always a possibility. A reminder that the mind’s psychological state is a fragile space, which needs to be treated with gentleness, compassion and patience.”

— Florian Fernandez