HDV film, Color, 33 min, 2013

Music : Louis Sclavis

Production : Marseille-Provence 2013 ; FRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur ; Ville de Martigues

 

At a command post – the film’s sole setting – which overlooks the lift bridge of the town Martigues against the backdrop of passing boats, a man tells the story of a certain Thomas, who decided to learn Persian from a mysterious captain. After a long apprenticeship, by now convinced that he has reached sufficient mastery, Thomas ventures to write a text of his own, at which point he discovers that the language he’d ostensibly been learning is nonexistent. The bridge turns into an architectural and symbolic representation of language as a bond that separates.