– Banu Akseki offers an evocative portrait of an adolescence in search of meaning lived in a pre-apocalyptic world where the threat of a rebellious sun hangs
Asia Argento and Joe Decroisson in Sans soleil
With Sans soleil [+leggi anche:
intervista: Banu Akseki
scheda film]which had its world premiere in Sao Paulo and its Belgian premiere at the International Film Festival of Mons, Banu Akseki offers a multi-layered atmospheric film, both in terms of texture and predictions for a future so close that you can almost touch it. The film paints the sensitive portrait of a teenager looking for landmarks in a pre-apocalyptic world where the sun has become our enemy.
Joey, a 5-year-old (played by Joe Decroisson) wakes up to find his mother in a state of pain. She suffers from intense headaches, she seems harassed by unbearable noises. Besides being sick, she also suffers from addiction and seems to seek a solution to her problems in a mirage-like spirituality. Her to the point of no return.
We will never really know what Joey’s mother is suffering from. We understand that her illness would be due to a phenomenon of solar flares, generating electromagnetic fields. But we feel her grief, we see her addiction. Later, some clues will allow us to better understand the nature of this invisible disease, the veracity of which is questioned. A widespread malaise, both physical and psychological, “like a poison”, explains the mother (interpreted by Asia Argento).
Ten years later, we find Joey (played by Louka Minnella), adopted by a tender and loving family, but still haunted by the lingering memory of this little-known mother. One day he sees a silhouette that reminds her of her mother.
He runs after her, in search of her past, her history and an explanation. A potentially vain search, a loss impossible to bear, which will lead him into an underground world where some try to fill the existential and spiritual void by joining in addiction and in a form of resistance to the world.
Just as Joey’s relationships with others are interwoven with unspoken, the film is also built on allusions, textual but also visual or sound, especially when we seek the invisible (the “dead but still burning flames” that hypnotize the mother of Joey) and the subtle white noises. Things, like the sky, are veiled. Everyone is free to choose (or not) what is under the veil.
Sans soleil it’s a cinematic experience. Minimalist film in the dialogues and in the plot, it is maximalist in its approach, leaving room for moods, atmospheres, images of an omnipotent nature that seems to claim its rights. There is also room for the paradoxical figure of the sun, a source of life, but also of destruction. This unsustainable paradox portends the onset of chaos. Humanity is reminded that, in the face of this omnipotent nature, resorting to a mystical or religious spirituality can serve as a last defense. Filmed before Covid, it is a prophetic dystopia in terms of symptoms and effects, clashes, blindness, social divisions.
Sans soleil is produced by Frakas Productions (Belgium), and co-produced by Volya Films (Netherlands), The Jokers (France) and Savage Film (Belgium). The film is sold worldwide by Playtime, and will be released in late April in Belgium, distributed by Frakas itself.
(Translated from the French)