Parisian actor Denis Lavant charges headlong into the absurd, anointed with a child’s crown and a steely determination, in French director Philippe Prouff’s short Waster.

Made in collaboration with Croatian-born German fashion designer Damir Doma, whose folkloristic spring 2011 collection is incorporated, the 11-minute film was shot in the untamed environs of Ireland’s Inishmaan island.
Waster takes inspiration from Albert Camus’s essay “The Myth of Sisyphus,” with Lavant starring as the eponymous hero: a king trapped in an existential loop that sees him painstakingly build the walls of his castle before destroying his progress.

Pointedly, “waster” is a homonym for a prop weapon. “This man’s answer to the absurdity of his life is to struggle perpetually.

“Our fate is our own,” the director says, “and life is purely what we make of it.”

The full version can be seen on the Walter Films website.

Denis Lavant: Sovereign Design on Nowness.com.

Damir Doma is exclusive to 4.

Read the original blog post here on Noweness.