‘I know it’s weird’ – Jumbo: the film about a woman who falls in love with a funfair ride

Inspired by Erika Eiffel, who married the Eiffel Tower, this surreal debut tells the story of a woman who falls in love with a big, swirling fairground ride. Its director explains all

Just imagine the pitch. I want to make my debut film about a girl who falls in love with a funfair ride. Um, that's it." But, however improbable it may seem, Zoe Wittock didn't just get Jumbo bankrolled, the film was also screened at Sundance. And it's every bit as strange, and quite a bit richer than you might expect.

Jumbo tells the story of Jeanne, played by Noemie Merlant, who lives with her sexed-up single mother near an amusement park, and also has a job there as an after-hours cleaner. One night, while spit-cleaning the knobs on a new fairground machine, Jeanne realises she has fallen in love with him". And so begins a giddy rites-of-passage story, with the intoxication of flashing lights and the sensuality of oil standing in for the dopamine rushes and tentative bodily exchanges of first love.