Director Aleksandr Balagura

Countries Italy

Duration 57 min

Synopsis
This film narrates an intense story of love, disease and death, inspired by the autobiographical novel “Beyond the Blue”, by the photograher and writer Cesare Bedognè. The book recalls his meeting with Monique, a Dutch girl, who would later get ill and eventually die of leukaemia. The novel inspired the theatre performance of the same name, which was in its turn the starting point of this film, first cinematographical experience of Cesare Bedognè. The photographs of Cesare Bedognè and the words from the book alternate then in the cinematographical editing by Aleksandr Balagura with shots improvised on occasion of one of the theatrical performances, with shots taken in Italy, in a deserted Sanatorium of the Alps, place of the past of Cesare Bedognè, and with shots taken in Lesvos, the place of his present. In this sense, the language of this film is based on the relation between the apparently static form of the photographic image and the everlasting “becoming” of the sea shots. In the same way, the empty scene of the stage in the theatre relates with the words of the narrating voice, the music of Bach and the choreographies of the actress.