Sélection officielle · Longs métrages · FIJA 2026
Sukkwan Island
A Film by Vladimir de Fontenay
France / Norway / Belgium / United Kingdom — 2026 — 1h55 — Drama With Swann Arlaud, Woody Norman, Alma Pöysti, Ruaridh Mollica, Tuppence Middleton Screenplay: Vladimir de Fontenay — Based on the novel by David Vann — Production & French Distribution: Haut et Court
Roy is a young man haunted by the past. Ten years ago, at thirteen, he agreed to spend a year with his estranged father Tom on a remote island deep in the Norwegian wilderness : a place with no roads, no phones, no people. What was meant to be a chance to reconnect became something far more harrowing. Now an adult, Roy returns to the island one last time before the cabin is torn down, looking for closure, and perhaps for something he can’t quite name.
LONG METRAGE COMPÉTITION OFFICIELLE
19/04
16:00
Director’s Statement
“I read the book and it moved me so deeply. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why but it was just so powerful. Bleak, but incredible.” — Vladimir de Fontenay
Based on David Vann’s novella from Legend of a Suicide, its first ever screen adaptation, Sukkwan Island is a film as physically punishing as it is emotionally precise. Three years of location scouting, 33 drafts of the screenplay, and a 26-day shoot in the Norwegian Arctic produced a survival drama that is, at its core, a story about fathers and sons, and the wounds that outlast the people who caused them.
Vladimir de Fontenay
A Franco-American filmmaker, Vladimir de Fontenay first came to international attention with Mobile Homes, presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes 2017. Sukkwan Island is his second feature. He brings together two exceptional performers: Swann Arlaud, César winner for both Petit Paysan and Anatomy of a Fall, and Woody Norman, the young British actor nominated at the BAFTAs for C’mon C’mon, in a two-hander that carries the entire weight of the film.