LIFE, A LONG WAY AWAY
LA VIE AU LOIN
France, 2011
81 minutes
directed by: Marc Weymuller
Pause for a moment. Hold your breath. Open your eyes wide. A gem of modern documentary filmmaking lies in front of you. Invisible threads connect people’s inner worlds and mystic landscapes into a philosophical essay, characterized by sophisticated auteurist approach and spellbinding cinematography.
Fascinated by the timelessness of scenes and people on the documentary photographs from the remote yet alluring Portuguese region of Barroso, the French documentary filmmaker Marc Weymulle was further intrigued when he discovered landscapes that these photographs left out like a carefully hidden secret. The book where he found these images has a paradoxical title “Negrões - White Memory”. That is the point at which he starts this surprisingly metaphysical journey through the intertwined layers of time. These layers are impressed upon the hazy and mystical landscapes, cobbled streets, dark interiors, and faces that are sculpted by their destinies; it is a journey into the deeply buried thoughts and memories. The life there is shaped by the alternation of rain, snow, blossoming and ripening, and by the rhythm of the herds that leave in the morning and return at dusk. “Barroso is a remarkable region: with respect to its history and the questions it raises; questions that are simple yet essential,” noted Marc Weymuller. “The landscapes serve as a mirror. In reminding us of what we used to be, they warn us about what we have become.”
A film that truly pushes the boundaries of documentary filmmaking. Extraordinary visual imagery is complemented by a complex composition offering profound insights into what is hidden and contemplative.
Selector’s Word: The director has said it himself in a beautiful way that explains it all – this is a film about memory, what we were once and what we have become. It is from a place in Portugal, far away from the so-called modern world, but it is also a film about a state of mind.
web.me.com/letempestaire/Site_Le_tempestaire/La_vie_au_loin.html
Marc Weymuller
Born in 1965 in Marseille, France. Since 1989 he has been working as film director and sound recordist. He has written and made fiction and documentary films dealing with absence and forms of existence of those who are marginalized, disappeared and lost.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
DESPITE THE NIGHT (Malgré la nuit), 2004
FOUR WALLS AND THE WORLD (Quatre murs et le monde), 2009
LIFE, A LONG WAY AWAY (La vie au loin), 2011
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