We knew how beautiful they were, these islands
Film20 minutes
2022
A dark and enigmatic ritual in which a solitary figure moves through a desert burial ground. The objects left behind speak their own silent language.
A lone figure digs a grave in the dead of night. With no dialogue – and no sound other than the wind, the crackling of a fire and the scrape of a shovel against dry earth – we are confronted with a dark and mysterious, possibly cursed, universe where every object seems haunted by a meaning we barely sense, but which seem to confirm our anxieties. The head of an old doll, a comb, a lipstick. Relics whose silent language speaks of the end of their former owners. At sea, in the desert. Younes Ben Slimane’s disturbingly beautiful and melancholic imagery is bathed in darkness and in a golden chiaroscuro, lit only by the stars and the lone grave diggers’ headlamps.
Texts
A lone figure digs a grave in the dead of night. With no dialogue – and no sound other than the wind, the crackling of a fire and the scrape of a shovel against dry earth – we are confronted with a dark and mysterious, possibly cursed, universe where every object seems haunted by a meaning we barely sense, but which seem to confirm our anxieties. The head of an old doll, a comb, a lipstick. Relics whose silent language speaks of the end of their former owners. At sea, in the desert. Younes Ben Slimane’s disturbingly beautiful and melancholic imagery is bathed in darkness and in a golden chiaroscuro, lit only by the stars and the lone grave diggers’ headlamps.
Texts
This film is production of Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains (FR)
and Inside Productions (TN)
With the support of Institut français de Tunisie and the Agency for Heritage Development and Cultural Promotion, Tunisia (AMVPPC).
WORLD PREMIERE
- CPH:DOX, New Vision competition, Copenhaguen, Denmark
SELECTED FESTIVALS
-Dokufest, Prizren, Kosovo.
-Kinemastik International Short Film Festival, Malta.
-SPEAKERS FOR THE DEAD , kunstencentrum BUDA, Courtrai, Belgium
-Festival dei Popoli, Florence, international competition
-Kasseler Dokfest, Kassel, Germany, Nomination for the Golden Key.
AWARDS
StudioCollector Prize
VFF YOUNG TALENT AWARD, by The German Royalty Collecting Company of Film & TV Producers Ltd, Filmschool Fest Munich, Germany
Loop Barcelona Prize
The Acquisition Prize MACBA-Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain
Distribution: Natalia Trebik
NTrebik@lefresnoy.net
