Part of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s mission is to foster greater understanding through world cinema. This year 72 Foreign Language films were submitted for Golden Globes consideration. Here is an overview of one of them.

It is the early nineties and the electronic dance movement is dominating the Paris music scene. The story of Eden delves into the life of Paul Vallée, a DJ. Paul is a lost teenager and he lives as if there is no tomorrow. But even though raves are all the rage, Paul is drawn to more soulful rhythms. He forms a DJ collective called Cheers and he and his friends throw themselves into an endless cycle of sex, drugs and music. He becomes addicted to cocaine, debates politics until the wee hours of the morning and soon spins out of control.

Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo appear as characters from the cult band Daft Punk and make a handful of appearances as Paul’s friends, with whom he shares a similar upbringing but not the same taste in music. Paul’s success – unlike Daft Punk’s – is short-lived but for a while he goes from playing the Banlieues of Paris to New York’s MoMa.

The 35 year old director Mia Hansen-Løve wanted to show both sides of coming up in the music scene, and Paul is not just loosely based on Sven Hansen-Løve, Mia’s brother and former DJ, who co-wrote the film with her. “It was so exciting for the both of us,” says the director, “just being aware that there was no film that really took club culture seriously. There were films that used house music here and there, scenes set in clubs, but not a film about a DJ. Ours would be a film that would show the euphoria of it but also the reality.”

Eden was shot on a shoestring budget within six weeks after three years of never-ending pre-production, mostly due to the fact that obtaining the rights to the music was so expensive. Hansen-Løve was only able to obtain the necessary rights to license the music after Daft Punk agreed to license their music for the lowest possible fee.

A lot of familiar faces pop up: Paul is played by Felix de Givry and the Daft Punk members are Vincent Lacoste and Arnaud Azoulay. Greta Gerwig and Golshifte Farahani make an appearance as well. Hansen-Løve had originally planned to release Eden as two separate films. “It was (to be) my Kill Bill.” She laughs.

Eisabeth Sereda