Artists' Present
SUR LE PONT & MAKING-OF
How readily we give in to the illusion of being immortal and place a taboo on the subject of death. Directors Sam and Fred Guillaume decide to break this taboo and portray our mortality in a very personal way in “Sur le pont”.
Women and men board a mysterious train that takes them across a majestic suspension bridge between heaven and earth. In this enigmatic setting, they find themselves in an in-between world where they share their thoughts, hopes, and fears and reminisce about their past. Each one passes through this threshold in a unique way, as if in a rite of passage. All are on their way to a mysterious destination: the presumed end of the bridge. But does it really exist?
The voices of the characters in the film come from 20 terminally ill people with whom the directors Sam and Fred Guillaume conducted interviews in hospices or at home over the course of two years. A total of 113 conversations in 2015 and 2016 served as the basis to develop the film’s narrative framework. But even though the project is based on real statements, it is primarily fictional: each person felt free to speak of themselves under the guise of their cinematic double and to imagine their own way of crossing the bridge. Whether the statements corresponded to the biographical truth or not was irrelevant; only the sincerity of the emotions mattered.
All the protagonists in this poignant film project have since passed away, but their voices live on in the characters they portray in the film. (Xenia Nguyen)
Women and men board a mysterious train that takes them across a majestic suspension bridge between heaven and earth. In this enigmatic setting, they find themselves in an in-between world where they share their thoughts, hopes, and fears and reminisce about their past. Each one passes through this threshold in a unique way, as if in a rite of passage. All are on their way to a mysterious destination: the presumed end of the bridge. But does it really exist?
The voices of the characters in the film come from 20 terminally ill people with whom the directors Sam and Fred Guillaume conducted interviews in hospices or at home over the course of two years. A total of 113 conversations in 2015 and 2016 served as the basis to develop the film’s narrative framework. But even though the project is based on real statements, it is primarily fictional: each person felt free to speak of themselves under the guise of their cinematic double and to imagine their own way of crossing the bridge. Whether the statements corresponded to the biographical truth or not was irrelevant; only the sincerity of the emotions mattered.
All the protagonists in this poignant film project have since passed away, but their voices live on in the characters they portray in the film. (Xenia Nguyen)
Info
Duration 48'
Country CH/FR, 2022
