Boyuna

A tv programme

Written by

Guillermo Quintero

Directed by

Guillermo Quintero

Produced by

Lieux Fictifs

Production year2026

GenresDocumentary

Runtime 29 min

Synopsis

A man sits in a booth bathed in azure light. Across from him, two scientists record his data and program his escape. “Auditory,” they specify. As the pulsating echoes of vibrant nature fill the space, he finds himself transported onto a small boat in the middle of a river, deep within a tropical rainforest. It is the year 2135, and the Boyuna Corporation offers survivors the chance to fulfill their dreams by escaping into ecosystems—most of which have disappeared from the planet—along with the flora and fauna of their choice. This science-fiction scenario was conceived by a group of inmates at the Baumettes Prison in Marseille in collaboration with director Guillermo Quintero. Together, they transform the detention center’s Image and Movement Studio into retro-futuristic sets and create the conditions for astonishing journeys through time and nature, using digital renderings of these environments. A primeval forest, a desert of fine sand, a calm sea teeming with golden fish… the walls become projection surfaces, remnants of these now-imaginary worlds, against which the silhouettes of the participants stand out like shadow puppets. Without ever referencing incarceration, Boyuna draws on the conventions of escape and science-fiction films, using boundless inventiveness and technical skill as its only weapons to respond to the constraints of the closed setting and enchant the disillusioned space of the prison. Far from the suspense often associated with the genre, a sense of tranquility and melancholy emanates from the actors’ performances and the stories of their dreams, which reveal very contemporary environmental concerns and a desire for connection with the animal world. The animal world quietly makes its way into the studio space, which, for a time, becomes a place of absolute freedom of expression.

Louise Martin Papasian