Square Eyes Boards Immersive Video Game Pic ‘Knit’s Island’ Competing at Swiss Doc Fest Visions du Reél (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comLise Pedersen “Knit’s Island,” the sophomore feature by French trio Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, competing in the Burning Lights sidebar at Swiss international doc fest Visions du Reél, has been picked up by Vienna-based film sales company Square Eyes.
It is entirely shot in the online post-apocalyptic world of DayZ, a multiplayer survival video game set in the fictional post-Soviet Republic of Chernarus, where a mysterious plague has turned most of the population into violent zombies.
Under the guise of avatars, the three-member film crew entered this world and made contact with its players. Their goal was to show how the gaming world can be a place where players become part of a strong community, they tell Variety. “We were really attracted by this story of gamers who get together, who don’t fit this stereotypical individual concept of a gamer,” says L’helgoualc’h. “For many people [outside], this virtual world is linked to an idea of loneliness. “But we managed to meet these people and found a real family.
These players don’t know each other in real life – they’re dispatched around the world – but some of them have been playing together for a long time: they have histories, relationships, there’s a real friendship between them,” he explains.
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