It's a never-ending flow. All day long, people come to the reception desk at the Lost and Found Office. They want to retrieve their belongings, they're in a hurry. But finding what has been lost is not an easy task. It requires time. The time it takes to wait for their turn and fill out the paperwork at reception. Time to explain what has been lost. Time to find the item in the warehouse and send it back with the freight elevator. It's best to surrender to the wait and indulge in the telling of what kind of setback, accident or misfortune has caused our loss, and brought us to this place.

"Several summers ago, everything was apparently going smoothly, when suddenly my things started getting lost. Everything: keys, books, identity cards, papers. My days were littered with small moments of mourning. And then, amid this uninterrupted stream of losses, the most serious incident occurred: I lost my laptop. 

When I found it again, several weeks later, at the Lost and Found Service, I was awestruck: strangers who owed me nothing had looked after me. So that was how, when I went to find my computer, I discovered Rue des Morillons, this place devoted to loss. I loved spending time in the hall with its big windows and sturdy old furniture, where a crowd of bereft losers had wound up before me. I no longer wanted to leave this place. I wanted to stay there, surrounded by the others and their stories. I was intent on filming them."

Laura Lamanda is writer and director. From 2005 to 2010 she worked as a Paris-based contributor to the culture pages of D di Repubblica, the magazine published by the daily newspaper La Repubblica. In 2008 she wrote the long form article Les tristes igloos du canal Saint-Martin, published in Sarkozy's France as Seen by the Foreign Press - Ed Courrier International. In 2009 she co-wrote the film Famille awarded at the Torino Film Festival. In 2012 she published the novel L’aeroracconto dell’amore fatale with Fandango Libri. In 2015 she co-wrote and collaborated in the direction of the documentary film Lupino CINE Plus Award and Young Jury Award at the Brive Festival. L’île des perdus - Lost and found in Paris is her first feature documentary.