Bear Skin

Director's note

Since my earliest short films inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, I have been fascinated by the fantastic and by the way the strange and irrational can emerge from everyday reality. Bear Skin continues this exploration while taking it to a new scale, combining folklore, dark humour, eroticism and terror.
Inspired by the traditional bear festivals of the French Pyrenees, I want to create a film that gradually shifts from realism into nightmare. Beginning with an almost documentary approach to village life and its seemingly harmless celebrations, the visual style will become increasingly expressionistic as the ritual turns threatening. Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man is an important reference for this unsettling transformation.
The Pyrenean landscapes, with their forests, mountains, caves and abandoned industrial sites, will provide a striking setting for this descent into the fantastic. Light and shadow will play a central role, particularly during the nocturnal hunt, while music drawing on medieval and primal sonorities will evoke the ancient instincts underlying the ritual.
Above all, I want the audience to share Yann’s growing uncertainty: where does the game end, and where does reality begin?

Screenwriter's note

“Every man carries a sleeping bear within.”
Although France is rich in folklore, legends and popular imagination, much of this heritage has disappeared from contemporary cinema. Yet many traditions survive through local rituals. In the Pyrenees, the Bear Festival celebrates the return of spring through a symbolic hunt: a man dressed as a bear is pursued by villagers after supposedly abducting a young woman.
The bear has always held a special place in the European imagination. At once a comforting childhood figure and a feared predator, capable of standing like a man yet forever wild, it inspires both fascination and unease. Despite its dangerous nature, the bear retains an extraordinary capacity to arouse sympathy.
Inspired by this tradition, Bear Skin brings an ancient ritual into the contemporary world. Yann, a newcomer seeking a fresh start after a painful separation, accepts a role in the village festivities, only to find himself caught in a game whose rules he does not fully understand. When the celebration takes a terrifying turn, the boundary between theatrical performance and genuine violence begins to collapse.
Blending suspense, dark humour and the fantastic, the film explores the tension between the individual and the community, between civilization and our more primitive instincts. As the villagers pursue their Bear, their collective enthusiasm becomes increasingly disturbing. But the ritual also transforms Yann, forcing him to discover something unexpected within himself. Will he truly end up becoming a bear?

Producer's note

I have known Marc Charley for many years, and our collaboration is rooted in a shared passion for unconventional storytelling. His short fiction films explore the uncertain boundary between reality and the supernatural, combining dark humour, unsettling atmospheres and a distinctive sense of the fantastic. Bear Skin is both a continuation of his artistic journey and an opportunity to bring his singular universe to a wider audience.
What particularly attracts me to this project is its original combination of ancient folklore and contemporary suspense. Set in a remote Pyrenean village, Bear Skin transforms a seemingly innocent local celebration into a gripping, unpredictable thriller. Its striking landscapes, dark humour and increasingly nightmarish atmosphere offer strong cinematic potential, while its universal themes and genre elements can resonate with international audiences.
We envisage Bear Skin as a European co-production, with France and Spain as natural partners given the film's geographical and cultural setting, while remaining open to collaboration with partners from other countries. Our ambition is to bring together the artistic and financial resources needed to fully realize Marc's vision, while developing a strong international strategy for the film's distribution and festival circulation.
Above all, we believe Bear Skin has the potential to stand out as an original European genre film, combining a deeply rooted cultural identity with suspense, visual ambition and broad audience appeal.

Profile

Founded in Paris in 2016 by Laurent and Bertrand Normand, Les Films du Jour Prochain has produced award-winning short films, including The Taste of Ginger and The Photographer, as well as documentaries. The company is now expanding into fiction features and developing international co-productions.