SMECHERIA OR THE CONFIDENCES OF A CHEAT

SMECHERIA OR THE CONFIDENCES OF A CHEAT is an animated documentary that immerses viewers in the captivating and shadowy world of the shell game - a notorious street scam where players must find a ball hidden under one of three cups. At the heart of the story is Doru, a 60-year-old Romanian player whose life story proves as elusive as the game itself: a labyrinth of illusions and half-truths.

Through a mixed-media journey across a shady Brussels, Doru reveals the secrets of the shell game: the sleight of hand required, the role of accomplices, and the psychological traps set for victims. As he wanders the streets and squares, he shares fragments of his past - his childhood in communist Romania, his nomadic years across Europe, his prison stints, his rises and falls.

Over time, a fragile friendship develops with director Antoine. Initially wary, Doru gradually engages with Antoine's project, yet remains unpredictable - opening up sincerely one day, vanishing without explanation the next, torn between the desire to tell his story and the fear of exposure.

This complex, shifting dynamic becomes the film's core when Antoine discovers that key parts of Doru's biography are fabricated. Suddenly, the ground shifts beneath him, and friendship turns into disorientation. In a world where the line between reality and illusion blurs, where memory and fantasy merge, and where deception has become the norm, does the very notion of truth still hold any meaning?