Unnamed Footage Festival 2026: ‘Heritage’ makes you wish you were never born
In his debut feature film, Baptist Agostini-Croce delivers the scares.
Inherited violence, traumas, and psychology often lead to unbreakable vicious cycles. Particularly among millennials and younger generations, setting boundaries and severing those brutal ties have become a prevalent core in personal transformation. But sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you can never escape the past. Baptist Agostini-Croce’s Heritage, playing this year’s Unnamed Footage Festival, explores what happens when you return to your roots and are met with an ungodly evil. The film, falling somewhere between Kill List and The Sacrament, never pretends to be a transcendent piece of art. Rather, it emerges as an indie filmmaking experiment that marks Agostini-Croce as one to watch.
Marie (Marie Bolbenes) and Daniel (Daniel Di Grazia) left their homeland, the island of Corsica, 15 years ago as little kids. They haven’t seen their grandfather (Philippe Ambrosini) in that time, so their return carries mixed meanings. The film opens with family videos of them and their mother playing in a nearby stream. Their grandfather records them on a vintage video recorder. By his temperament, he’s a stern patriarch with a rigid belief system and way of doing things. There’s a clear indication that Marie and Daniel’s mother harbors a deep resentment against him, perhaps hinting at the reason behind their quick departure. Bored with their self-proclaimed “family vacation,” in the present day, Marie and Daniel whip out a video camera and have some fun shooting their trip. But it’s clear that not everyone, including their grandfather, is keen on having them on the island.
After venturing into the surrounding wilderness, Marie and Daniel meet a group of locals, who invite them out to a secret party spot for ghost stories and liquor. They laugh, toss back a few shots, and enjoy tales of a mysterious group of people who once inhabited the island. Part of these people’s religious rituals involved sadism, including inflicting pain on their own flesh. The fictional whispers fill their minds and linger well into the following morning. Their grandfather, even now, possesses a remarkably cold and mean spirit towards them. Marie and Daniel remain unconcerned by his icy words and detached demeanor. Once the noose is tightened, there’s no escaping it.
The camera work is standard, capably capturing images like polaroids. Agostini-Croce uses the ephemeral nature of memories as his film’s thematic backbone. It’s difficult to forever grasp memories; they are but sands in an hourglass, constantly falling away from us. Heritage grounds fleeting flashes in the present. They are only uncovered because of their being there. Their memory of being is tethered to the idea that we’re only alive as long as someone remembers us. Once they stepped onto Corsica, their fates were sealed. With an unfussy script, not bogged down by extraneous exposition, Heritage makes for an easy-going viewing experience. The chills and thrills stem from Agostini-Croce’s knack for insidious fear, never relying on just jump scares to get the blood running cold.
Heritage sets Baptist Agostini-Croce up for a promising career. He understands conventions but never gets marred by them. He leans into them but doesn’t become beholden to them. If there’s one thing for certain, found footage is always in need of fresh, honest perspectives, and Agostini-Croce delivers.
