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A film by Phyllis Katrapani
Starring François Papineau, Jacinthe Laguë
et Atanas Katrapani.
Does a true homeland - that golden land preceding separation,
land of retained childhood, site of an era left behind
- really exist? How does one regain the "home"
belonging only to us?
Fictional documentary, documented fiction, real or imagined
homeland . . . Characters on a journey into memory encounter
one another through words. Faces, individual voices tell
a unique story, almost invented, about a single country
with different names.
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| Director's statement |
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What is HOME about?
My previous
film, Ithaque (1997), had been
an allegory of Ulysses’ return to the island
of his birth.
After making Ithaque, I felt a desire to better define
house and home, the place that inhabits us and which
we inhabit, the place we return to, even if only
in thought - a myth, perhaps? |
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Despite my
attachment to Montreal, my place of birth, I have always
felt the presence of an elsewhere within me - a desire
for something perhaps never experienced, a nostalgia for
the places where my parents were born and grew up. Even
in visiting them regularly, I sometimes felt these places
were neither me, nor of me. Idealizing my roots was something
that preoccupied me.
I wanted to make a film that revolved around the dramatic
character of Alex, a marine cartographer torn between
two worlds. This man would appear throughout the film
in various scenes, each evoking some aspect of home: land,
family, country of origin, etc. Playing alongside, Léa
would express her desire to build something tangible and
concrete, here and now. Around this couple, the enigmatic
Poet would represent mental space, interior landscape,
the place within us into which we withdraw and where we
can truly be at home.
Intercut with these dramatic tableaux, I envisaged scenes
of images shot in Greece and Turkey, my countries of origins,
which I would call « Pictures of the Homeland ».
These images would be linked to Alex’s visions.
From the onset, it was important to me to juxtapose my
experiences with others’, hence the desire to include
documentary passages in the film and let reality and fiction
evolve on the same level. Alex’s thoughts and those
of the people interviewed are responsorial and fuel each
other. Thus, added to the individual voice would be a
more universal voice, so the film would pose the single
fundamental human question : For each person, what conditions
create the feeling of being at home, safe and sound ?
HOME does not seek to offer a single,
authoritative answer. Instead, it attempts to foster a
better understanding of ourselves and others in a world
undergoing constant redefinition.
- Phyllis Katrapani -
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| Photos (Credit: Michel Lamothe) |
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| All rights reserved Amazone Film - 2007 |
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