An actress and new mother (played by Zita Hanrot) is haunted by voices as she embarks on inhabiting the role of surrealist writer Suzanne Roussi-Césaire. In the sleepy palm groves of the tropics, a small group of filmmakers and actors confront the history of writer Suzanne Césaire in her youth and then stage scenes from her life, troubling the “paradise” of historical memory. Moving between narrative filmmaking and abstraction—a night at a 1940s cafe, and the garden where a film’s cast and crew discuss and bring to life the missing pieces of the writer’s legacy—this is a film that leaves room for the unknown.
This is Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s first feature. The film stars César-award-winning actor Zita Hanrot and Motell Foster, and features a soundtrack by singer Sabine McCalla. Offical Selection: Rotterdam, TIFF, NYFF, Viennale.
TRT: 75 min
"A woozily metatextual essay that lives inside the mystery of Césaire’s tiny but influential corpus of work, rather than trying to solve it." —Jessica Kiang, Variety
"This film shows us that another political model is possible... A stunning debut film." —Radu Jude, director of Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
"A wildly original portrait of the Martinique author/activist vividly explores how an important figure can be lost to history." —Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest
"A film of deliberate beauty. Where the biopic imitates, Hunt-Ehrlich evokes; where it sutures cause to effect, she wreaks gentle havoc on chronology." —Erika Balsom, 4Columns
"Merging the filmmaking process with snippets of the protagonist's life and words, The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire blurs distinctions between past and present." —Eileen G'Sell, Hyperallergic
(Available to download after screening date)