(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
One of the most perfect and beautiful films in 2018 is Kate Tessa Lees and Tom Schön's 26 minutes long German production Sec Rouge. The film is a sensitive depiction of the daily lives of the women who fish for squid on Rodrigues – a small volcanic rocky island in the Indian Ocean. Rodrigues has an area of 108 square kilometers, with a population of 42 and is located about 000 kilometers east of Mauritius – 500 kilometers from the African coast. Together, the two islands make up the majority of the Republic of Mauritius, which was a British colony until 2000. With a prehistory as a Dutch and especially French colony during much of the 1968th and 1600th centuries, the island nation is still predominantly French-speaking.
Werkstatt cinema is a celluloid temple that seems untouched and unchanged since the 80 years
Little Mauritius – often referred to as "Asia's gateway to Africa" - is today of significant strategic interest to economic giants such as China and India. There is even talk of transforming the country into an economic hub with Singapore as a role model. However, this corner of the world is only exceptionally noticeable in the rest of the world. And perhaps the greatest advantage of the documentary is that it offers privileged glimpses of places and people that most of us would otherwise have no idea.
Distinct form sense and artistic approach
The film artist Lee was born in Mauritius herself, but is now based in Berlin, where she has worked with Schön since 2015. Their collaboration has been described as "a form of observation where reality and fiction merge". Sec Rouge feels on the surface like a piece Verite cinema, where we as a fly on the wall are served fresh slices from the real world.
Since the premiere in Hamburg in June has Sec Rouge made their mark at quality-conscious documentary festivals. I even caught the film the very last day during Underdox – a small, cozy and rich film festival that takes place in Munich every year. The 13th festival in the series launched between October 11 and 17, and despite its name, the festival program contained several unambiguous fiction films (such as Bruno Dumont's musical hard rock version of Jeanne d'Arc, Jeannette), next to "conventional" documentaries and hybrids that broke up the various categories.
I Sec Rouge We follow three fishermen women, all named Marie, across the mainland and out on the sea, where with a pointed rod they spit pulsating squid through their heads. (The largest of the nine brains of intelligent creatures is here.) This work, known as ourite stitcher, has a tradition that goes back many generations. It has been an extra source of income for the women – who also get to participate in the joys of camaraderie while their husbands are out fishing. The work can be dangerous ("some disappear without a trace"), and it is increasingly due to the disruptive effects of climate change: "I no longer understand the language of the sea," sighs one of the women worried.
Since the premiere in Hamburg in June, Sec Rouge has made its mark at quality-conscious documentaries.
The most favorable period for squid hunting has always been what in a Franco-Creole turn is described as sec rouge - a term referring to the "dry red" low tide that follows a spring. These sec-rouge periods are now increasingly rare; the film's high-pitched and elegant tone instills a sense that we are witnessing a phenomenon that will soon enter the story. But Sec Rouge is far more than a historical archive for the future. From the first long shot – which depicts one of the women under a big pale sky in complete silence – it is clear that the story is told by directors with a distinct sense of form and an original artistic approach.
Atmospheric "Slow Movie"
Sec Rouge is mostly a silent movie – beans whispered at dawn, a dark profile at dusk. Due to its short format, it goes into a series of stationary tags that place it in the much-talked about slow cinema-sjangeren. But the impressions are gradually building up; a sequence in the last third of the film, where we see the sun's first rays glow over a black sea, is an impressive cinematic bargain.
This enigmatic piece of mood art is also crowned by redeeming moments: We follow one of the Marines out into the boat through turbulent and thunderous waves; watchful, she contemplates the situation from second to second before suddenly throwing her off with a stubborn determination. It is a subtle and intriguing climax in a movie where every single scene and transition contributes to a whole full of strong impressions.
Accession at pleasant and informal Werkstatt cinema
Together with Sec Rouge the festival also hosted the world premiere Accession – a glowing and delicate 48-minute long film directed by American duo Armand Yervant Tufenkian and Tamer Hassan. The couple, based in Los Angeles and Chicago, respectively, chose Underdox as the venue for the first viewing. First and foremost because of the festival's charming main hall – the pleasant and informal Werkstatt cinema – which is not only equipped for viewing analogue material, but which also gives priority to analogue films as far as possible.
Located in a basement under a gate room, between an independent theater and a beer and barbecue restaurant, Werkstattkino with its 35 seats is a veritable celluloid temple that seems untouched and unchanged since the 80s. It doesn't take much imagination to imagine Munich's most admired and notorious filmmaker, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, knitting on the back row with a beer from the improvised lobby bar.
Title word Accession refers to an addition to a library collection, and suggests that the work has at least one foot in the past. The film is structured around a series of personal letters written between seed collectors sharing the same hobby. The letters date back to 1806. The first letter was actually addressed to the US President, and the seeds themselves must have been attached to the letters. Both transmitters and receivers are Americans; over the course of five years, the directors have traveled to the letterwriters' addresses, usually quiet rural places, and filmed what they came across on an old 16mm reel. These reels are devotedly listed and specified in the reel text: "Film stocks in order of appearance."
Eccentric with green hands
Scratches and "imperfections" are visible in the grainy film from beginning to end. The result is an organic, immersive experience. Everything is uncompromising old school, also the use of letter mail in the communication between people who are far apart, in a movie that itself acts as a love letter to the past and the past.
The letters are read by a number of voices, all of which sound authentic in their unprofessional – sometimes halting – performance. ("Dear Gardener Friend Craig ...") Together, they evoke a lost and good-natured vision of an almost vanished America. The letters are spiced with lovely brackets and random details: "my best regards to all people, plants and poultry", as "Owen" finishes the letter. Accession is a touching tribute to independent small projects – the opposite of commercialized "industrial agriculture" which has catastrophically ended up completely dominating US agriculture in recent decades.
We gradually understand that the essential survival of the countless local species depends on the tireless drive of these eccentrics with green hands. Yervikian and Hassan thus highlight an insatiable and surprising form of "underground movement" – a homegrown form of resistance struggle that becomes even more impressive because it relies on such fragile materials. Literally a radical movement.
