In the Pines, in the pinesIn the Pines, in the Pines is an autofictional feature film that moves between present-day observation, an imagined shared past and temporal dysphoria. At its centre are two filmmakers, seen in their daily lives as they work on a film about memory, intimacy, and time. As their process unfolds, the film opens into a fictional summer story — a past that never fully existed, yet insists on being remembered as an imaginary “summer film”.

This summer is not presented as recollection, but as a cinematic construction: a space shaped by fantasy, projection, and emotional truth. Characters, encounters, and landscapes emerge as figures within this imagined past, carrying the intensity of lived experience without claiming documentary accuracy.

The film weaves these temporal layers together. Moments of work, conversation, and everyday presence flow into the summer scenes and fantasy-dreams, allowing the act of filmmaking itself to become visible. Memory appears as something produced in the present — negotiated, staged, revised — while the fictional past gains weight and texture through cinematic form.

Winner of the competition Fast Track 2025, Zürcher Filmstiftung.


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