White Epilepsy

They are ghosts – do they really exist? A film like a dream or a nightmare. In the middle of a forest, two naked bodies, those of a man and a woman, perform a very slow and hideous choreography. It looks like an age-old ritual about domination and submission. The male ghost withdraws, but the woman doesn’t let him go: she throws herself at him.
Philippe Grandrieux, the maker of Sombre (1999) and countless other films, often experimental, shows the ceremonial wrestling in slow motion, with the bodies sometimes seeming no more than a collection of muscles, tendons and pale flesh, as in paintings by Francis Bacon. Apart from being terrifying and violent, the dance occasionally looks sensual.
White Epilepsy, created in collaboration with dancer Hélène Rocheteau, is the first part of the trilogy Unrest. The theme linking the three films/installations is fear, with the viewer watching from a safe position – as if through a slit in a castle wall.