Stella Polare (2006)

An essay film occupying the ground between narrative, documentary and experimental film-making. It is a work of fragmented histories: of the catastrophes of empire, war, terror and resistance of our times. Its unseen narrator 'encounters' the inhabitants of an undisclosed port city in old Europe as they stroll along a jetty in the melancholy fading light of evening. These meetings are with terrorists, philosophers, writers, photographers, shopkeepers whose subjective accounts and conjecture create a rupture within twentieth century history and beyond. Such sequences provide a central structure around which threads of image, sound and voice-over are interwoven to create an ambiguous and speculative narrative. Elsewhere, the camera explores a city where the people are largely absent. The dusty faded traces of a glorious imperial past - the interiors of opulently furnished nineteenth century apartments and museum vitrines of stuffed birds - encounter the present tense materiality of the video image. Stella Polare is a work of contemporary relevance which, through its particular engagement with history, reflects on time, memory and violent political action.