Metanoia. Experimental film. 15 min. Black & White. Surround Sound. Germany / Hungary. 2022
Director. Producer. Sounddesign: Nadine Poulain. Más Media Production Kft.
Audio Postproduction: Niklas Kammertöns. NEUTON BERLIN
STILLS
SYNOPSIS
The experimental film Metanoia is a reflection on Europe’s / the West’s struggle with its very core: its faith. Its interest lies in the ability to seek a higher truth and overcome any simplistic and momentary certainties attached to the self.
The film features a selection of written and spoken words, taken from Friedrich Nietzsche, Rainer Maria Rilke and Michel Mourre. Those words, bold and big, take turns with an imagery of despair, accusation, humbleness and worship. One of the (reoccurring) images, maybe the most dramatic one, is that of Notre Dame‘s collapsing church spire. It is both: haunting and glorious in its last moment.
Considering the Ancient Greek origin of the word metanoia: méta, meaning beyond and noeō, meaning understanding, a space of intensity and self-surrender opens up. It is a dance of extremes, a battle of the soul and always: Notre Dame!
TRAILER
A very mysterious and multilayered artwork – actually an ideal basis for meditation.
David Engels
REVIEW
The ancient Greek term metanoia describes a process from the religious practice of the antiquity. It is a process that is connected to repentance, an inner conversion and therefore a newly gained worldview.
The film Metanoia by Nadine Poulain can be described as an associative accumulation of moments of such a process. Two pieces of text are the binding foundation for this: Rilke’s Book of hours and a quote form The Gay Science by Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s emphatic warning of nihilism meets the poetic and visionary experience with God from Rilke. Poulain accomplishes a synthesis of those two moments. With great sensitivity and accuracy, she reconstructs stadiums and inner experiences of a spiritual-philosophical crisis of orientation, without immediately gaining safe grounds.
A continuously changing circle of black and white images and monolithic words guide the view deeper and deeper into his own association. The theoretical term metanoia therefore becomes an existential, yet accessible, experience. This experience goes far beyond the reading in a dictionary. The reoccurring quote from Zola (used by Michel Mourre in this film): ‘j’accuse’ is having a pivotal role hereby, as it bridges the gap between the paleness of the theoretical-philosophical thought and the practical realization of a reorientation in a world that deserves to be accused.
Martin Mucha & Parviz Amoghli 2022 Translated from German