Curious spring which opens with the 46e edition of the Cinema of Real, at the Center Pompidou, in Paris, from March 22 to 31: the function of the documentary and its injunction to “reality” have never questioned us so much, as the news has darkened further with the war being waged by Israel in the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for Hamas attacks, on October 7, 2023. Not to mention the bogged down conflict in Ukraine, the rise of the far right on the eve of the European elections in June, etc. So many distressing questions that nestle in the selected works.
How does darkness fit into films, or how to program in 2024? The “Réel” team, led by artistic director Catherine Bizern, found one of the most beautiful answers there is: on its own, the competition mixing short and feature films redraws another world, following new trajectories , like that of Derrick Johnson, a forty-year-old leaving the United States (for Cuba!) under the camera of Marie-Pierre Brêtas, in the very endearing Leaving Americaand recounting, while driving, his difficulty in “growing up” as a black man, since his childhood. “Filmmakers who have both feet in reality are very permeable to this chaotic atmosphere that we experienceexplains Catherine Bizern. The selected films look contemporary in the face, while carrying us away with the grace of their staging. Beyond their thoughts, they provide political emotion. »
Desire to resist
Each in their own way, the films in the competition express a desire to resist. Let’s start with the unexpected and vibrant Trip to Gazafirst feature film by Franco-Italian Piero Usberti, shot in 2018, the editing of which was completed at the end of September 2023. Retrospectively, this portrait of the Palestinian enclave shows the city as we will no longer see it, and captures the words of a youth eager to live, despite the double lead of the Israeli occupation and the Hamas government, which, among other things, bans relationships outside of marriage – the film will be screened on March 23, in presence of the filmmaker, who told the World this grueling and intoxicating shoot.
Indirect echoes of the war in Ukraine also arrive with the return to competition of Virgil Vernier. The director, who has the gift of exfiltrating reality into the world of the tale, with his portraits of various young people (golden or penniless) in Orleans (2012), The Mercuriales (2014), Sophia-Antipolis (2018), or even Sapphire Crystal (2019), presents a “feature” film, Imperial Princesswhich we were unable to view. Far from the front, it follows the daily life of a young Russian girl living alone in Monaco, and who feels threatened after the departure of her parents to live in Russia.
You have 46.3% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.