Par-delà les nuages – In Conversation with Marion Hänsel

With her first film, the rarely seen short Equilibres (1977), Marion Hänsel launched herself into the unknown, just like the main protagonist of her film. With similar courage, she did not hesitate to go through hell on a tightrope. It was a signal that announced a whole body of work yet to come that would explore the fragile line between two worlds: life and death, madness and normalcy, childlike innocence and the wounds of adolescence, truth and lies, love and the end of love.

As a filmmaker operating from Belgium, Marion Hänsel often uses writers for inspiration, many of whom enjoy international allure. Her film locations are also to be found in the most eclectic corners of the world: from South Africa to Hong Kong, Italy and the horn of Africa, and from the Pacific to Croatia.

Through her camera, Hänsel imposes a unique worldview on us, filled with curiosity, expectation, freshness, force. She has the look of an adventurer, not just exploring territories but essentially people. Men and women, she wants to get to know them, understand them, appreciate them, discover how different human beings can be: people possessed by an interior world, by madness, by passion above all. This makes her characters so profound, so human, tender and violent, often contradictory and with plenty of hidden scars. Which is also a self-portrait of Marion Hänsel.

After the screening of Par-delà les nuages – Le cinéma de Marion Hänsel, film critic Ella Kemp moderates a conversation with Marion Hänsel.

Thu 30 Jan, 17:30, KINO 4, €12