PRESS KIT

THE SHEDDING

a film by Benjamin Lussier

Fiction | 24 minutes | 2025

La mue

Language: French + STE

shooting format: 4k - couleur

ratio 16:9 | Sound 5.1

DCP - ProRes - H264

country: Canada (Quebec)

#lover #actor #double #filmset #relationship

Specs

Logline

When his lover, a rising actor, leaves him for his own stand-in, Jean spirals into doubt and obsession. Caught between dream and reality, on a chaotic film set where everything is an illusion, he embarks on a troubling quest—must he reinvent himself to win him back, or risk losing himself entirely?

Synopsis - short

When Christophe, a rising actor, leaves Jean for his own double—a stand-in meant to replace him on set—Jean spirals into doubt and obsession. Between their apartment, haunted by memories, and the chaos of a film set where the line between artifice and reality blurs, he loses himself in a troubling search for identity. The more he tries to reinvent himself to win Christophe back, the more reality slips away, pulling him into a world where illusions take on a life of their own—and where he himself may become nothing more than a reflection.

Synopsis - long

Jean and Christophe, both conservatory graduates, were once inseparable. But as Christophe embraces his rising fame, Jean—working in the shadows as a set designer—feels left behind. Their love fractures when Christophe leaves him… for his own stand-in, an anonymous actor chosen to mirror him on set.

Disoriented, Jean spirals into a troubling quest: must he reinvent himself to win Christophe back, or risk fading away entirely? Between their memory-laden apartment and the chaos of a film shoot where illusion and reality blur, he witnesses his own transformation—trapped in a world where identity itself becomes a mirage.

The Shedding is a dreamlike comedy exploring identity, desire, and illusion. As Jean, like a set designer, tries to rebuild himself into someone Christophe could love, the film plays with cinema’s own mise en abyme. But can one construct a lie without getting lost in it?

Blending humor, irony, and existential vertigo, The Shedding unfolds in a world where masks fuse to the skin, and love becomes a carefully staged illusion—teetering between dream and nightmare.

Cast

Jean Mickael Gouin

Christophe Francis Ducharme

Mathilde Catherine Brunet

Julie Cynthia Mateu

Thomas Benjamin Lussier

Sammy Vlad Alexis

double Maxime Genois

stuntman Mathieu Bouillon

FESTIVALS: Awards and official selections

30th REGARD International Short Film Festival - Chicoutimi, Canada / march 2026

DIRECTOR - BIO

Benjamin is a visual artist, director, and screenwriter whose work blurs the line between reality and dream. With a deep love for animation and visual arts, he harnesses their power to bring imagination to life in ways the real world cannot. His storytelling balances striking imagery, emotion, and humor, creating worlds that feel both vivid and surreal. Since 2008, he has built a distinct visual language where every frame serves the story.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

With The Shedding, I wanted to explore attachment and how love can blur the boundaries between self and other. In a fusionnal relationship, we gradually adopt our partner’s gestures, expressions, and habits—sometimes to the point of losing ourselves. This identity confusion takes on a unique dimension in a same-sex couple, where the Boyfriend Twins phenomenon, the uncanny resemblance between partners, echoes the world of cinema, where actors have stand-ins molded in their likeness.

The film unfolds in a floating reality, where the ordinary cracks open to reveal the strange. Inspired by David Lynch, Wim Wenders, and Day for Night by Truffaut, The Shedding plays with the porous nature of artifice and reality, performance and intimacy. Blending dreamlike elements, absurdity, and self-deprecating humor, it explores how far one is willing to go, and how much of oneself they are willing to change, in the pursuit of love.