The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire

“In art as in life, the surrealist cause is the cause itself of freedom. [...] In order to enlighten the world, freedom must make itself flesh and blood and must be reflected and recreated in language, in the word.” In line with what Suzanne Roussi Césaire wrote in 1942, THE BALLAD OF SUZANNE CÉSAIRE is not a portrait of this incredible woman (a Martinican writer, editor, teacher, mother of six), but a way of being with her. Built from different fragments, this poetic film approaches her writings, ideas, landscapes and relationships (with her husband Aimé Césaire, André Breton and her children) via a sensibility equal parts lucid and abstract. A crew gathers to make a film as if conducting a trance. What is summoned forth are questions and ideas, places and brief moments of life. Motherhood and its temporality shape the film as much as its materials: Zita Hanrot, the actress who plays Suzanne, is a recent mother. Her baby and a nanny accompany her every step and every thought, creating a poetics of interruption, distraction, fragmentation, incorporation. Édouard Glissant (a disciple of the Césaires) wrote: “I build my language with rocks.” This film is built the same way, and the rocks are both soft and sharp. (Lucía Salas)

In the presence of Mike Ryan (producer).

Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich (selection): PIT ON THE BROOM (2019, K), A QUALITY OF LIGHT (2019, K), FOOTNOTE TO THE WEST (2020, K), OUTFOX THE GRAVE (2020, K)