Sansa (2003)

Director:

Siegfried

Writer:

Siegfried (writer)

Release Date:

28 January 2004 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Sansa is a young man. The camera pursues him, takes a peep at him, tries to catch his face, his look...

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Roschdy Zem	...	Sansa
Ivry Gitlis	...	Monsieur Click
Emma Suárez	...	Emita
Silke	...	Paloma
Valentina Cervi	...	Valentina
Rita Durão	...	Chloé
Ayako Fujitani	...	June
Georges Abe	...	Georges
Bassem Samra	...	Ahmed
Amar Attia	...	Le CRS
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Martha Argerich	...	Herself
Liz Lobato
Bénédicte Loyen
Antoine du Merle
Zay Nuba

Runtime:

France:116 min (Cannes Film Festival)

Country:

France

Language:

French | English | Spanish | Italian | Russian | Portuguese | Hungarian

Colour:

Colour

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud)

Company:

Arte

Astonishing

I had the opportunity to see "Sansa" at a film festival in Thessalonica Greece. Before I went into the theater, I didn't really know what to expect, I had just read a brief preview in the festival's guide and decided to give it a chance. When the film ended it took quite a while until I got over my astonishment from this extraordinary experience.

The movie starts out in France following a man called Sansa, who doesn't come from anywhere (although he speaks French most of the time) and doesn't know were he is heading. He is always on the move, observing and talking to people in the streets, especially to women who he really worships. He is an artist; he makes portraits of people earning some money and his plan is to travel. This will lead him to an incredible journey around the world with no passport or luggage, through places like France, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Russia, Japan, Egypt, India, Africa, where he walks around, meeting people, welcomed by some, chased away by others. On his journey Sansa meats a conductor/violinist, passionate about music and women, who goes by the name of Monsieur Click and who mysteriously shows up in most places that Sansa appears.

There is no real script or story to this movie. This is an improvisational project about the director's vision of this world and its people, trough his eyes. The camera continuously follows Sansa, closely capturing his actions and expressions as he observes people around him. These are real everyday people; the director focuses on their faces, their eyes that stare at us, plunging us into the mystical visual atmosphere of the film. Beautiful, in different ways, faces of women and the various conversations between them and the main characters is the centerpiece of the film, and women are the source for inspiration for Sansa and Monsieur Click. Art and especially music play an important role in "Sansa" and used in a very appreciative way by the director.

The cinematography is very artistic and the picture is visually stunning, with digital hand camera work, close-up shots and the use inventive light, color filtering techniques and enhancements.

This is a real masterpiece, a rear film about life, art, people and the world around us. Simply unmissable.