Dans La Brume – Just A Breath Away
released 2018
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“Dans La Brume” (translated in English to “Just A Breath Away”) is a French, Quebecois, scifi, survivalist movie written by Jimmy Bemon, Mathieu Delozier and Guillaume Lemans. It was directed by Daniel Roby and produced by Guillaume Colboc, Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Christian Larouche and Guillaume Lemans. It stars Romain Duris, Olga Kurylenko, Fantine Harduin, Michel Robin, Anna Gaylor, Rephäel Ghrenassia, Erja Malatier, Alexis Manenti, Maurice Antoni, Christopher Ramone, Geoffroy De La Taille and Robin Barde.

“Dans La Brume – Just A Breath Away” IMDb webpage

“Dans La Brume” is the story of Parisian couple Mathieu and Anna, played by Romain Duris and Olga Kurylenko, who suddenly find themselves in a life threatening situation. A mysterious, toxic fog comes up from the ground to fill the whole Paris basin just below the top floor of their building. The toxic fog might not just be in Paris but everywhere else with islands of safety at higher planes. The safe places are above the top floor of buildings and higher peaks like Le Sacre Coeur neighborhood on the edge of the Paris basin.  As if the couple didn´t have enough problems trying to survive in the apartment of their top floor neighbor we learn that the toxic fog is rising.

“Dans La Brume” is a very well written survival story with just a sprinkle of sci-fi. You have a couple that really love each other and their daughter and who are trying to survive a possible extinction level phenomenon in Paris. At one point Mathieu is wearing breathing equipment in the fog when he stumbles on a group of people who are also wearing breathing equipment. The group is headed to the Sacre Coeur neighborhood for safety. They invite him to join them but he wisely declines their invitation. I´m sure that had he accepted their offer the story could easily have taken a turn from bad to worse. Mathieu and his family would have been stuck at Sacre Coeur and surrounded by desperate people under worsening conditions.

This is a simple movie that works. The characters are likeable like the elderly, top floor neighbors who are very much a reflection of Mathieu and Anna. It really is them decades in the future. Now the toxic fog itself is one big mystery. The extinction phenomenon of the story could have been a plague, flood or even solar flare but it was a toxic fog. This fog that rose from the ground, out of nowhere, kinda has me thinking of a type of fumigation, like for cockroaches or ants, but who really knows where it came from. Anyway, some mysteries are better left alone. I´m just glad that they avoided any scientific explanations or military direction for the story because that would have been so trite.

I highly recommend “Dans La Brume”. You´ll enjoy it.

John

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