David Ayoun

Film

“Be the change that you want to see in the world.” Gandhi

My project got started in India a year ago, with the fascination I felt on seeing a photographic portrait of a Ramnami, a member of that community of Untouchables whose bodies are completely tattooed with writing. The initiatory story imagined for this film tries to evoke the powerful process behind the action of these Untouchables, who have adopted this gesture as a way of rehabilitating themselves. A quest for self-reconciliation. The construction of this film was an opportunity to make a synthesis from my practices and my interest in the visual arts, cinema, performance, dance and music, but also, having grown up on the island of Réunion, to bring into play my mixed cultural roots. Made with an Indian crew, the film is also a door into the political, literary and musical culture of India.

Synopsis: In India, in an unspecified period, a farmer is leading his cow through a forest that is said to be haunted. He now has a strange experience. On returning to his village, a wise man tells him that he is fated to die, unless he sets out to find both the spirit and his own self. To this end, he will write all over his body the words that will help him in his quest. But what will he find, once clad in these words? And what dance will sweep him away?

David Ayoun

Remerciements

A toute l’équipe du Fresnoy, à l’accueil de l’Uttarayan Art Foundation, à mon enthousiaste équipe de tournage en Inde, au chaleureux soutien de ma famille, et de mes amis.