In an industry where self-advertisement is practically a prerequisite, filmmaker Siegfried is amazingly reticent about his personal background. From his refusal to disclose his last name to his disdain of promotional tours and interviews, Siegfried is and remains a mystery.

Most days he is traveling, clutching a Handicam and ready to record the street sights of Fez, Bangkok, San Francisco and Tokyo among others. In fact, Tokyo was the one city he agreed to be interviewed in. Finding it "extraordinary, full of craziness," he has set part of his next film "Sansara" in Shibuya.

"Louise (Take 2)" is Siegfried's debut feature and stars Elodie Bouchez as a Parisienne in love with the Metro and a homeless guy who wanders there. "Louise (Take 2)" strikes an astonishing balance between brute realism and a fragile, stylized fantasy world. It has a loving hands-on texture that other indie films struggle (and invariably fail) to achieve. Siegfried shrugs the compliments off.