It’s a Short Life

How would you feel on a day when you have decided to change your life? Would there be fanfare in the morning; would people smile to you in a special way? On a beautiful autumn day, the architect Stilyanov wakes up feeling that it is high time to change his life and stop being complicit to the construction of awful, ugly, shoddily-built grey blocks of flats and whole residential estates. So far, as member of the commission that approves new constructions, he has rubberstamped these monstrosities as fit for human habitation. Stilyanov decides to voice his objections this very morning and refuse to approve yet another finished project of “grey, uniform blocks in a residential desert”. But while he wades through the mud of one such unfinished residential estate, the button of his trousers snaps off. This is an annoying, petty detail but... somehow it won’t do to take a noble stand with your trousers slipping down. Stilyanov starts looking for a way out of this awkward situation. He goes from door to door in the grey blocks of flats, with the request to borrow a needle and thread, but he is met by mistrust and aggression. Finally, he finds himself in a mystical “specialized branch for tailoring services”, where the only specialized service on offer is exquisite bureaucratic torture for the client.

Selected Productions

It’s a Short Life
It’s a Short Life

Selected Translations

It’s a Short Life
Le Sorano, Toulouse, France. Directed by Jean-Pierre Beauredon.
It’s a Short Life
Canopée Produktion, Berlin, Germany. Directed by François Baldassare.
It’s a Short Life
Hors Série, Toulouse, France. Directed by Malika Gessinn.
// Photographer: Benoit Chatelain.
It’s a Short Life
It’s a Short Life