Film details
- Director
- Bruno Richaud
- Country
- France
- Duration
- 13 min
- Language
- French
- Writer
- Bruno Richaud
- Producer
- Pascal Salafa, Franck Priot
- Cast
- Hélène Bizot, Sabine Perraud, Guillaume Faure
Director’s statement
Lifelines is a quiet meditation on grief — not as an ending, but as a passage. I wanted to explore how the invisible lingers long after loss, and how an unexpected encounter can gently reopen a connection to life.
Shot with restraint and simplicity, the film relies on silence, natural light, and small shifts in presence. I also composed the score, imagined as a subtle echo of this fragile space — never leading, only accompanying. A whisper, a breath, a flicker of the unseen.
Synopsis
In a cemetery wrapped in winter, Éléonore—still shaken by the loss of her husband—lays her latest collection of short stories on his grave. As she gives in to her solitude, a bright, unexpected voice calls out to her: Charlie’s, a sparkling and disarming woman, in total contrast with the solemn atmosphere of the place.
As their conversation unfolds, Éléonore discovers an unexpected way of looking at life and confronting her grief. But when Charlie disappears without explanation, a mystery arises: who was Éléonore really talking to?
Bruno Richaud
Director
Bruno Richaud is a French filmmaker working across fiction, documentary, and television. He directs both short films and prime-time programs for major French broadcasters, including regular work for France Télévisions.
His creative approach combines visual restraint and emotional nuance, with a particular interest in memory, silence, and inner transformation. His short films explore the space between what is seen and what is felt, between reality and memory.
His latest short film, Lifelines (2025), produced by Ghosts City Films, is set in a winter cemetery and follows a grieving woman whose encounter with a mysterious presence offers a subtle shift between absence and renewal.