Arnaud des Pallières
France | 1996 | 84 min
Language : French
A film in three acts. At death’s door, the last survivor of the Holocaust takes stock of the powerlessness of accounts of the event. Researching the Drancy concentration camp, a female student touches on French participation in the extermination of European Jewry. A ship’s captain sails up a river where civilization is left behind and comes face to face with barbarism. A moral examination of the history of the 20th century.
A film in three acts. At death’s door, the last survivor of the Holocaust becomes aware of the powerlessness of accounts of the event. Researching the Drancy concentration camp, a female student touches on French participation in the extermination of European Jewry. A ship’s captain sails up a river where civilization is left behind and comes face to face with barbarism. Drawing on literary influences (from Georges Perec’s ‘W, or the Memory of Childhood’ to Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’), the film blends past, present and future, immersing itself in the mythical power of history. “A Paris metro station bears the name Drancy Avenir. Is this irony or a lack of awareness on the part of some authority? I don’t know. But from the gap between those two words emerges an image, a kind of warning or prophecy, a prophecy directing us back to the past. Our future contains the germs of destruction of the past” (AdP). A moral examination of the history of the 20th century, Drancy Avenir also turns its implacable gaze on the present day.
Luciano Barisone (Translation BMP Translations)
