THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – NOT TO BE MISSED
Here is a title that sounds like a poem or like the sketch of a falsely sleeping landscape: those of the night, by Sarah Leonor, is similar to the work of a painter, a geographer, even an anthropologist, the director auscultating with rare intensity a territory of transit on the Franco-Italian border. Here we are perched at the top of the Montgenèvre pass (1,850 meters above sea level), located in France, in the Hautes-Alpes, but also a handful of kilometers from Italy. This paradise for hikers, golfers and skiers is also a crossing point for migrants seeking their way to the town of Briançon, where there is a solidarity refuge. From the first images, we are clinging to the stone, to the rocky paths strewn with clues and traces of life of the exiles, set back from the main road where the police roadblocks are installed.
The text-image montage powerfully opens the imagination and terrifies us, too
Rather than filming the migrants – with the risk of putting them in danger – or the volunteers who help them, Sarah Leonor chose to paint hollow portraits, using in voice-over testimonies she had collected before filming. – which are taken over by actors, Solène Rigot, Damien Bonnard and Olivier Rabourdin, interpreting the marauders. Occupying all the visual space, nature and the rock walls become mute witnesses of all human actions, and this is what makes the film fascinating. The images (from archives or contemporary) mingle with the words of the protagonists, in a free and poetic flow. A voice that seems to come from the mountains (Françoise Lebrun, with a unique timbre) acts as a narrator, connecting long time and micro-news.
The text-image montage powerfully opens up the imagination and terrifies us, too. those of the night has something of a cruel tale, with its characters not sleeping as lightly as before. There is Martin, who discovered the territory as a child, when he was visiting his uncle in the summer who settled on the Italian side of the pass. A holiday movie clip shows us a little boy playing in the river, with “deep joy and total freedom”, the narrator tells us. Later, Martin became a geographer and settled in the area with his family. One day, in a parking lot, he came across two young exiles who seemed lost. He offered to drive them to Briançon, but on the way they were stopped by the police and sent back to Italy. One of the men in uniform has warned the geographer: next time he will be in trouble with the law.
You have 39.98% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.