On the Origin of Species - How We Tell Our Histories
, Double Bills
On the Origin of Species - How We Tell Our Histories, Double Bills
France
The film is an unconventional composition made of material gathered over many years, on several continents. The two directors, Nicolas Klotz and Elisabeth Perceval, start from a script based on a novel by William Faulkner, about the escape of a slave, on which they develop semi-improvised scenes in Brazzaville, Barcelona, and Paris, where the “fugitives” of today, the refugees, try to build a life for themselves. It is a movie about those who run away from the history which condemned them to slavery and from a present which condemns them to poverty and a perpetual chase for „something slightly better” one can only obtain in a Western country, after having risked their life. It is at the same time an almost experimental endeavour built around dance as a means for liberation and forgetting yourself, and the expression of a sincere curiosity towards people and the infinite possibilities of the image. Although one of the conclusions is well-known – there is no victory, because what matters is the struggle, the confrontation -, the message is one of mobilization: “When some say ‘crisis,’ we say ‘revolution.’” (Sorana Stănescu)
AUDIO: French, Spanish, Wolof
SUBTITLE: Romanian, English