The Maiden
awarded with the FIPRESCI Award 2022
The winner in 2021 was the Toronto-based writer Graham Foy. His short film ›August 22, This Year‹ screened at Cannes and the New York Film Festival. ›The Maiden‹ is his feature debut, which had already won an award as a work in progress at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
THE MAIDEN
Two teenage boys on skateboards romp through a no man’s land of forests, ruins, rivers, and railroads. Only one of them returns. Contemporary American independent cinema at its best!
Canada. In the periphery of Calgary, teenagers Colton and Kyle spend one last gorgeous, dreamy summer day by the river and the railroad tracks, with their skateboards and their cans of spray paint. One of them never returns. And not long after, the schoolgirl Whitney also disappears.
Although it’s only director Graham Foy’s first feature, which he shot on 16mm film stock, it’s already the most impressive North American independent film of the year – as well as the ›Stand By Me‹ of our time. With a gentle and observant camera, Foy paints a lyrical portrait of a fragile generation. ›The Maiden‹ is both a mystery and a meditation on transience. Sensual. Hopeful. Unforgettable.
Country: Canada
Director: Graham Foy
2022 | 117 min. | English
Subtitles: German
Starring_ Jackson Sluiter, Marcel T. Jiménez, Hayley Ness, Kaleb Blough, Siena Yee Screenplay_ Graham Foy Cinematography_ Kelly Jeffrey Producer_ Daiva Žalnieriunas, Dan Montgomery Rights_ Celluloid Dreams