ALTERA PARTEM

Simon Doutreleau

At 21 years old, with his audiovisual degree in hand, Simon left France for the United States.
After working on American productions, he took a chance in April 2018 and launched the project OUT IN THE WOODS with his Franco-American team. He also directed a second American short film, THE DREAM EATER, in 2019, co-produced by the renowned Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.
After completing the festival circuit for both films, which were widely selected and awarded, Simon returned to France, strengthened by all the experience he had gained.
In early 2025, he finally shot ALTERA PARTEM, his brand-new film (a fantasy/horror short film set in a confined space) which he completed in November, starring Édouard Montoute and Jonathan Genet.
For the occasion, he founded his production company, ALTERA, and is simultaneously preparing his first feature film, LA MEUTE DE NAVARIN, produced by Rêvélateurs Films.

Director Statement

In my previous films, childhood and innocence were central themes.
Naturally optimistic, I often used fantasy and horror as vehicles for light and hopeful messages. Yet excessive optimism can also distort reality. With ALTERA PARTEM, I felt the need to confront a darker, more primal side of humanity.
The film stems from a desire to explore an ancestral fear, the fear of the unknown, and to observe what it reveals about our most intimate fractures. ALTERA PARTEM is a 25-minute fantastical chamber piece that immerses the viewer in the stifling hold of an abandoned ship. Three men, Adam, Dom, and Isaac, find themselves locked inside. Water and food are plentiful. What threatens them is not survival, but waiting, isolation, and the unsettling presence of a mysterious hole in the wall, discovered opposite a corpse with frozen eyes.
Adam, a rational doctor with an unblemished past, clings to logic and science, yet he is the one who will fall the furthest. Isaac, initially perceived as the antagonist, gradually reveals a more ambiguous nature. Beneath the guise of a fanatical mystic lies a desperate love for his son. Dom, younger and more fragile, seeks redemption within this confined space, but his innocence makes him particularly vulnerable.
The title ALTERA PARTEM, a Latin expression meaning “the other side” or “the other path,” runs through the film as a quiet undercurrent. Religious references, embedded even in the characters’ names, are neither satirical nor central, but function as symbolic echoes of transcendence and of our relationship with the unseen.
The visual approach is built on a tension between visceral immersion and a carefully composed aesthetic. Extreme close-ups expose inner turmoil, while fluid, almost unreal camera movements enhance the strangeness of the setting. The film was shot aboard a real ship undergoing restoration at the Van Praet shipyard in Saint-Denis, as well as at the abandoned Port Villez lock. These metallic, damp, and decaying locations fully contribute to the film’s oppressive atmosphere.
The music, composed prior to shooting, blends textures, choirs, and piano. Alternately celestial and metallic, it accompanies themes of fear, ecstasy, and madness, extending the mystery that seems to unfold beyond the hole.
ALTERA PARTEM is a dark, universal fable about the human condition and our relationship with what we do not understand. Through this fantastical chamber piece, I sought to awaken a primitive, visceral fear and to question what humanity reveals about itself when confronted with its own darkness.