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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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