This film by Boris Lehman, over six hours long, is extra¡ordinary in several respects. Somewhere in the film Lehman calls it a filmed psychoanalysis, but that should not be taken too literally, like some other things in the film. This refined and ironic film could also be described as a comedy. Lehman, with his melancholy and self-satire, is as an actor, director and performer in the tradition of the ‘slothful clownBabel – Lettre à mes amis restés en Belgique is, despite its length, only the first part of a much larger project eventually to comprise four parts. If the other parts are as long as this – and nothing suggests they won’t be – then the result will be a 24-hour film with and about Boris Lehman. He worked more than ten years on this first part. The first writing phase dates from 1979 and the first shots were made in 1983. Only in 1992 was Lehman able to present a version which he could call more or less complete.
The film focuses on Lehman in every respect. Via encounters with friends and acquaintances he shapes the story of his life. The life of a somewhat clumsy, charming and moving film-maker who has trouble being believed. When he says he is going to Mexico, his friends don’t believe him, as little as they believe that his film Babel will ever be completed. But look, miracles can happen.
