“Leave or die, that was my only way. But as dad used to say:Anyway you have no choice.” » Like this young Guinean, many men and women have escaped from torture camps in Libya. Whether they come from Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia or the DRC, they are welcomed in Aveyron by the Limbo association, which allows them to settle down for a while. In the village of Conques, these survivors take the path of resilience through art therapy.
Little by little, they redraw their long road of exile by each writing one or two songs. Helped by Mathias Duplessy, one of the great pens of world music in France, they recount the suffering of their crossing and repair their wounds by creating, together, a great “song of the living”.
Cathartic power of art
Cécile Allegra delicately reveals the touching stories of these survivors, haunted by memories of death and chaos. From autumn until July, the film plunges us into their therapeutic stay, where the creation of a song makes it possible to free speech. Dancing, singing and writing become artistic disciplines that soothe the heart. Their cathartic power recalls the poignant testimonies of Primo Levi or Anne Frank, where no detail is omitted in the face of horror and despair.
Thanks to its simple production, the documentary skilfully leaves room for silence to underline the importance of the unsaid in the trauma. The camera, placed in the corner of a library, films with precision each expression, each movement of the young people miraculously so as to feel what they have experienced. The memories are diverse but participate in the construction of a common memory, which encourages reflection on the connotation of the word “migrant” and on the current geopolitical situation. Music, almost omnipresent, allows the construction of a bold and poetic story.
