The Invisible Pact
What is passed on without being said.
Towards a film
In early 2024, I received an email from a German genealogist I didn't know from Adam. She had found the portrait of an ancestor I had never heard of. I thought: what on earth is this story?
So I went back up the family tree. Where did these people come from? Little by little, I understood that there was a family secret, tied to the Occupation. My great-grandfather, Alexis Dumont, was an architect in Brussels. He designed several of the city's emblematic buildings, and it is around one of them, and around his family, that the investigation tightens.
What happened during the Occupation? Why did this part of the family fade from our memories?
I had not set out to make a film. I followed my intuitions, a bit like following a trail of clues: each time, I found one more piece. I have documented every step in writing, chapter after chapter: it is the starting point for the film.
Everything I tell, I have lived, and archives have confirmed several of my intuitions. The fiction will come from the film.
One enigma remains, even today…
I would like this adventure, which gripped and captivated me, to give birth to a film.
I imagine a spiritual thriller about the human beings behind the façades, behind the walls.
This adventure, perhaps we will live it together?
A film with others
I am at the origin of this story, and I would like to bring together the people with whom it could become a film.
The first encounters are under way. What comes next will take shape with those who join.
A craft from cinema, writing, history or archives, but also a perspective, an idea, support, a presence: each person can come as they are, with the meaning they find in it.
I do not wish to write the screenplay or direct the film. I prefer to move forward at the pace of encounters, and to leave to those for whom it is a profession the creative freedom to give this story its cinematic form.
Each person is free to put into it what they wish, and so am I. Together we will find each person's right place.
If this story resonates with you or crosses your path, in your personal or professional life, I would be delighted to talk with you about it. If this story makes you think of someone I could talk to about it, let me know.
Going further: the reflections behind the film
The Invisible Pact is the name I gave to what is passed on without being said: loyalties, silences, inheritances. It is also the title of the film.
Since that email, I have been writing to understand, step by step. I have come to see how much we are shaped by our families, and more broadly by the society we live in.
These texts are reflections and questions, not established truths. You can read them in any order you like. The film can be understood without reading them. If you feel like going further, they are here.