“As filmmakers we are fascinated with The Dark Ages. Back then, human life was worthless, social and politic life were based on inequality and absolutely devoid of ethics and morals as we understand them today. The right to be, to bear your name and to breath to the venerable age of 40 are the main rewards of a daily fight. Death, also known as La Carnade in France, is one reality that everyone share : Peasants, Kings, Soldiers, Men of God and Heretics as well. The weakest fights a losing battle while the strongest finds in Death a way to rise socially. Our main character, the Lord of Mort-Lieu is one of the latter. Born an illegitimate child, he won his name and his land by his sword. Angry and revengeful, resolved to prove his worth, Mort-Lieu is a man of his time, a ruthless man. Until now…

The lord of war is now a sick old man. As he stares into Death’s eyes he learns about fear. A mysterious knight appears and Mort-Lieu believes he is the grim Reaper himself coming to get him. In the fading twilight of his life Mort-Lieu picks his ultimate and already lost fight, and feels the need to look back at what he has accomplished. What is his legacy ? His castle built on a rocky spear ? His legitimate and despicable son who never experienced the rush of fighting and bloodshed ? The bastard emblems that cover his coat of arms ? Facing none other than himself, it is now with his last duel that Mort-Lieu understands the value of life.

To capture our vision of the Dark Ages on film and increase Mort-Lieu’s distress, we think of PAR LE SANG as a medieval western. Scenography and weaponry of this time allow us to enhance our story’s themes with a strong visual signature, they extend our characters’ psychological depth to the point where violence is the way of showing how they feel. PAR LE SANG is a touching and universal tale which allows us to show how the awareness of death encourage us to live. It’s about the end of an era, Heredity and Redemption, and the final stand off is the metaphoric resolution for the eternal father and son conflict.

Because Mort-Lieu is a cornered man we keep him caught between a rock and a hard place, stuck in his armor and entrapped in the frame. It is significant to us that the audience embraces our hero’s realization : he can not hide away from his fate. With the idea of strengthening Mort-Lieu’s suffering, the mysterious knight is always seen from his point of view, as an enigma that we will solve with him throughout the film. Mort-Lieu’s last journey is the guiding thread that links all of our narrative and artistic choices.

We are not women and men of the Dark Ages ; nevertheless, there is a bit of Mort-Lieu in each of us.”

Behind Barres is a film about a dancer. It is a full narrative with a script and a cast. We strongly felt the choregraphy is part of the narrative but the point is the character, not the dance. It happens the character is a ballerina, but the movie is more than that.

This is why the film is nominated to 3 other categories but does not compete to the dance film category.

“Behind Barres is primarily inspired from my own experience of moving away from home and studying full time Ballet throughout my teenage and early adult years. As the gruelling world of Ballet began to overcome me, I found myself crippled with injuries while I watched my dreams disintegrate. I am extremely passionate to share my story through this film. I dedicate it to all the young dancers suffering through injury, who must find their inner strength in order to succeed.

Pursuing the study of Dance Film, for the past three years at the Victorian College of the Arts, I have been developing my own unique style of combining the genres of Drama and Dance on screen. The intention of the film was to combine the real world in juxtaposition with the subconscious in an abstract way.

I aimed to capture the raw moments of vulnerability that I had once endured through my injuries. In order to express this authenticity from my past and translate it to the screen, I began the gruelling process of digging through the vaults of five years of journal entries. This is where the writing process began. I wanted to take the dreams and metaphors that I had felt and combine them into the real world in an abstract way. For example, by using the glass cube as the metaphor for being stuck and unable to break free.

These Journal entries also became a key part of my choreographic process, with Tizana Saunders. Being Tizana’s debut to the screen, we used the Journal entries through improvisation tasks to organically assist her to connect with the role of Adelina.

“To be a prisoner within one’s body is perhaps the cruellest kind of suffering” Behind Barres is a film dedicated to all dancers who cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. A film to inspire and remind dancers that ‘you are not going through this alone’.”

Ekaterina Bourindine : cinematographer.

Eliran Nargassi : fashion