When we meet Juste (Thimotée Robart) he’s wandering on the train tracks somewhere in Paris, confused. He stops at a small house and the man there recognizes what is happening and tells him where he needs to go for help. Then flash forward 10 years and Juste is still wandering about Paris, only he’s not confused any longer. And it slowly becomes clear that he sees dead people, and he’s got a job helping them cross over by sharing a strong memory from their lives with him. And that’s pretty much all he does. That is until a young woman named Agathe (Judith Chemla) starts following him one day. And when he confronts her, it seems they had a brief, and for her memorable, connection back before he left the normal world. And so begins their otherworldly love affair.
Juste is invisible to most people, but not everyone. He’s on the cusp between our world and the next. So being with Agathe and experiencing what he tells her is his first love is something he wants to cling to. But the closer he gets to her the more tenuous his hold on his corporal existence becomes. And then one day without warning he fades away, though he can still see her and even give her pleasure.
Burning Ghost is an odd little ghostly love story. It takes a while to get going and there are bits that are not fully explained, but it’s rather lyrical and memorable. I recommend it to viewers who don’t need everything tied up in a neat bow and enjoy a quirky romance.
In French with subtitles. Streaming now through Kino Marqee virtual cinemas.