Les inoubliables (The Unforgettables), 2024.
Film. Picture format 16:9. Audio stereo.
Length 55'49''. VO subtitled in English.
Thirteen women interpret in their written languages the texts of twenty-five women poets from different continents and eras who have never met but who nevertheless share the same concerns.
Organized in eight scenes, or chapters, the script is based solely on these poems. They respond to each other, producing a series of conversations about the constraints imposed on women, about wars and struggles, but also about writing and the boundaries of language, about relationships and the place to occupy in the world.
There is no story as such, even if the succession of conversations in poetic form ends up building up an open narrative, as open as poetry can be, which produces “images without image”. These conversations constitute the narrative of the film.
The scenes take place mainly in abstract spaces, leaving plenty of room for listening to the languages and reading the subtitles — indeed, the subtitles convey the meaning of this multilingual conversation and allow us to hear the musicality and rhythm specific to each language, so essential in poetic writing.
Written and directed by Lucile Bertrand
Assistant director: Zoé Brichau
Director of photography and color-grading: Marie Merlant
Sound recorder: Liza Thiennot
Picture editor: Léole Poubelle
Sound editor and mixer: Marc Doutrepont
The interpreters are of different origins: Janet Avanesian (Armenian-Iranian), Natalia Blanch (Argentinian), Hala El-Mohor (Palestinian), Veronica de Giovanelli (Italian), Natalia Kolyagina (Russian), Violaine Molitor (Belgian), Anne-Marie Ndenzako (Burundian), Olga Pugach (Ukrainian), Sheury dos Santos Vieira (Brazilian), Anne Schiltz (Luxembourger), Mariko Sho (Japanese), Anna Stüler (German and English) and Tatiana Wolska (Polish).
Poems by Chika Sagawa (Japanese), Nella Nobili (Italian), Forough Farrokhzâd (Iranian), Véronique Wautier (Belgian), Nadine Cail (French), Alfonsina Storni (Argentinian), Hélène Cadou (French), May Ayim (German-Ghanaian), Emily Dickinson (American), Saniya Saleh (Syrian), Marie-Louise Sibazuri (Burundian), Esther Nirina (Madagascan, in French), Anna Akhmatova (Russian), Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger (Romanian, in German), Wisława Szymborska (Polish), Zuzanna Ginczanka (Ukrainian, in Polish), Victoria Amelina (Ukrainian), Fadwa Tuqan (Palestinian), Anise Koltz (Luxembourg, in French), Rose Ausländer (German), Noémia de Souza (Mozambican), Nāzik al-Malā'ika (Iraqi), Ingeborg Bachmann (Austria), Maria Gabriela Lansoll (Portuguese), Adrienne Rich (American).
The film received support from the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (Visual Arts), the Centre Audiovisuel de Bruxelles (CBA), Été 78 and Kahle Acoustics.
Presse
Interview by Pascale Viscardy, Les Inoubliables de Lucile Bertrand, in Flux News #94, July 2024.
Article pdf
Scene 1 – Janet Avanesian interprets a poem in Farsi by the Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzâd.
In scenes 1 and 2, some women exchange about the need to free themselves.
Scene 2 – Natalia Blanch tells a poem in Spanish by the Argentinian poet Alfonsina Storni.
Scene 3 – Tatiana Wolska interprets a poem in Polish by the Polish poet Wisława Szymborska.
Four women share their experiences of survival.
Scene 4 – Olga Pugach's voice can be heard reciting a poem in Ukrainian from Victoria Amelina.
Poems are heard in voice-over, first about the approach of war, then about the horror of war and what remains afterwards,
while some hands gradually place, displace and accumulate printed photos.
Scene 5 – The interpreter Sheury dos Santos Vieira listens to the end of a poem by the poet May Ayim told in German by Anna Stüler.
Women of different ages and origins, poised, confident, sometimes even defiant,
take turns listening to three long poems that encourage us not to give up struggles.
Scene 6 – Hala El-Mohor tells in French a poem by the poet from Luxembourg Anise Koltz.
Three women sitting on a staircase discuss an “aftermath” of war and borders.
Scene 7 – Anne-Marie Ndenzako tells a poem in French by the poet Hélène Cadou.
As they walk in the woods, four women discuss the making of poetry.
Scene 8 – Anna Stüler interprets a poem by the American poet Adrienne Rich.
First scattered across a park, some women evoke their connection to the earth and to others.
They then gather to listen to Adrienne Rich Planetarium that speaks of a “galaxy of women”
“relegated for their impetuosity” but also of tenacious, gifted and knowledgeable women.