16/03/2022 - Banu Akseki offers up an atmospheric portrayal of an adolescent looking for lived meaning in a pre-apocalyptic world, where the threat of a rebellious sun looms large

Unveiled in a world premiere in San Paolo and presented in a Belgian premiere at Mons International Film Festival, Sans soleil [+see also:
interview: Banu Akseki
film profile] by Banu Akseki is an atmospheric film on more than one level, in terms of its texture but also its predictions for a future so close we could almost touch it. Akseki paints a sensitive portrait of a teen trying to find his bearings in a pre-apocalyptic world where the sun has become our enemy.

Joey, a small 5-year-old boy (played by Joe Decroisson) wakes to find his mother in a state of pain. She’s suffering from intense headaches and seems to be tortured by unbearable noise. On top of being ill, she also suffers from addiction and seems to see a mirage-like form of spirituality as a solution to her problems. Until she reaches the point of no return.

We never find out what Joey’s mother is actually suffering from. We learn that her illness is attributed to a phenomenon of solar flares, relating to electro-magnetic fields. But we feel her pain and witness her addiction first hand. We pick up on a few clues later on, which give us a better idea of her invisible illness, the veracity of which is called into question. Hers is a generalised malaise, as physical as it is psychological, "like a poison", explains the mother (played by Asia Argento).

Ten years later, we catch up with Joey (played by Louka Minnella) who’s been adopted by a tender and loving family but is still haunted by the persistent memory of the mother he doesn’t know too much about. Then, one day, he sees an outline reminiscent of his mother’s.

He rushes after her, in search of his past, his story and an explanation. It’s a potentially futile search, a loss which is impossible to mourn, leading him into an underground world where some try to fill an existential and spiritual void by coming together in addiction, and a form of of resistance to the world.

Much like Joey’s relationships with other people revolve around things unsaid, the film itself is also built upon allusions, whether textual, visual or aural, and all the more so because we’re looking for the invisible (the "dead though still glowing flames" which hypnotise Joey’s mother) and listening for the inaudible sound of white noise. Objects, much like the sky, are veiled. It’s up to the individual to choose whether they want to look under these veils.

Sans soleil is a film experience. It’s a minimalist film in terms of its dialogue and plot, but it’s maximalist in its approach, yielding to moods, atmospheres and images of all-powerful nature which seems to be reclaiming its rights. It also yields to the paradoxical figure of the sun, a source of life but also destruction. It’s this untenable paradox which foretells the arrival of chaos. In fact, mystical or religious spirituality might actually be seen as a last line of defence against this all-powerful version of nature asking to be remembered to humanity. Shot before Covid, it’s a prophetic dystopia in terms of symptoms and effects, clashes, obliviousness and social divides.

Sans soleil is produced by Frakas Productions (Belgium) in co-production with Volya Films (the Netherlands), The Jokers (France) and Savage Film (Belgium). The movie is sold worldwide by Playtime and should be released in Belgium at the end of April via Frakas themselves.

(Translated from French)