Moon Dust seems to be taken straight out of surrealism itself. The story, the main character, the plot twist, the way it was filmed, and the hybrid blend of live-action, anime, and documentary make this film something incredibly worth watching.
It tells the story of Jérémy, a young and talented artist who reinvents his life after surviving a deadly crash. Faced with the second chance life has given him, he is determined not to waste it.
The film is incredibly touching and inspirational, inviting everyone in the audience to look within themselves and ask: are we doing enough with the life we’ve been given? Are we truly enjoying it, or are we wasting it? It is simply poignant.
I had the privilege of speaking with both the director, Bruno de Champris, and his son, Jérémy, the subject of this documentary. All of this took place at the Raindance Film Festival, where the film was screened.
They arrived with an impressive entourage: a powerful army of Japanese-made suits, VIP guests, close family members, and the film’s executive producer, Géraldine Dunoyer Montero, all gathered to support Moon Dust. Their presence gave the screening an unmistakable sense of occasion, transforming it from a festival showing into a celebration of the remarkable journey behind the film.
My first question to them was why Bruno would want to make a film about Jérémy’s life and accident, not only as a director, but also as a father, and why Jérémy would want to take part in it.
Jérémy told us that none of this was expected. They did not set out to make a film about it from the beginning. Bruno, who has worked in the film industry for over 30 years, wrote this story for him because, as Jérémy says, “It’s his story as much as it is mine. Years passed, and then we realized how original this story was. There was no script, just the facts of everything that happened. I took it very naturally. Things happened, my father wrote about them, and the idea of making a film came later. I just did it.”
Bruno continues: “For me, it came in two very different ways. My first approach was as a father, and then I transformed into a director. As a father, it was incredibly difficult, and I immersed myself in writing as a healing mechanism. As the story unfolded, the project came together in a very intuitive way.”
I then asked Jérémy if he had already watched the film.
“I have, because I helped with the editing, and it was therapeutic. This accident happened, and even though it was, of course, something traumatic, watching the film gave me the opportunity to see again the people who helped me through my recovery, to relive everything that happened in a way. It was an incredible adventure to see myself as a third person, like watching a character. It was fascinating.”
“Has that changed your perception of your own story?” I continued.
“Yes. The fact that I refer to this third person by his name, Jérémy, I don’t say ‘me,’ I say ‘Jérémy’, has definitely changed the way I look at things. When we had the whole film laid out in a single timeline, it was surreal because I could scroll back and forth through moments of my life on a screen. It was something else.”
I then asked Bruno what makes this story different from other survival stories.
Bruno replied: “Jérémy was not supposed to survive that accident, but he did, against all odds. The fact that he had to rebuild himself from ground zero, from scratch, is remarkable. What I think makes his story different is that he also had to rebuild himself as an artist.”
The accident left Jérémy deaf in one ear, effectively ending any possibility of pursuing music in the way he once had. Yet he had always loved to paint. As a child, he was constantly drawing and creating. “Painting was one of my two wings,” he says, a phrase I found simply beautiful. He also told us how involved he was in the creative process behind the film’s music. “It was very important for me to have a say in it,” he explained, as music remains his other wing.
One of the most interesting aspects of Moon Dust is its blend of animation and live-action. I was curious to know why this approach was chosen.
Bruno explained: “With Moon Dust, we did things in a very simple and subtle way because we have a project to transform this story into a feature film called Major Seventh, where animation will play a much bigger role. Jérémy’s love for anime and Japanese culture has always been a part of his life. He had always dreamed of living in Japan. In a strange way, the accident pushed him to follow that dream earlier than he had planned. It was in Japan that he truly began his career in illustration. Mixing animation with reality was therefore incredibly important because it reflects a huge part of his resilience and identity.”
Today, Jérémy lives in Japan and works as a character designer, having successfully rebuilt not only his life but also his artistic career. His journey is a testament to the extraordinary ability of human beings to adapt, create, and find purpose even after unimaginable hardship. What could have been the end of a story became the beginning of a completely new chapter.
Moon Dust is ultimately not a film about tragedy, but about transformation. It is about finding beauty in the aftermath, turning pain into art, and embracing the unexpected paths life places before us. As the credits roll, one message remains clear: sometimes surviving is only the first step, the real challenge is learning how to live again.
As the film gently reminds us, the dust left behind by our darkest moments can still catch the light.
And both, Jérémy and this film, are pure light.
