Session 68, Illegal_Cinema

Le Jardin d’essai [Dania Reymond, 2015, 42 min]
Screening proposed by Komisario Berriak, followed by discussion.

Samir is an Algerian film-maker who wants to make a low-budget film on a besieged city with a group of young amateur actors and actresses. As the auditions, rehearsals and filming progress in a lovely, calm garden, a peculiar family is formed, in which the issues in the film slowly take shape in a reality still affected by the wounds of the Algerian civil war. The park is seen as a refuge, where the exuberant hosts also act as a setting and a symbolic voice echoing the history of the country where young people aspire to find their own forms of expression.

The work of Algerian director Dania Reymond has been screened at different film festivals including FID Marseille, San Sebastián, New Directors New Films Festival, and Festival Côté Court de Pantin. Reymond studies film at the College of Fine Art and Contemporary Art Studio, Le Fresnoy, France.

This film, and the film to be screened on 9 January, are intended as two possible entrances into the garden from two different perspectives. The proposal is linked to the exhibition “…al menos un modo provisional de asentarse” en un lugar by Komisario Berriak, which will run from 14 December to 22 January 2017 at Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, and from 20 January to 26 February 2017 at Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria.