White Epilepsy

U.S. Premiere!

Philippe Grandrieux in person!

The man behind Sombre, La Vie Nouvelle, and Un Lac returns in person with his newest foray into the realm of the liminal. Derived from an installation piece, White Epilepsy pushes the limits of the visible and sheds all vestiges of narrative to enter a state of total immersion that’s at once disembodied yet deeply physical, metaphysical yet grounded in the primordial reality of the body. In the cinema of consciousness, Grandrieux continues to find ways to make darkness visible and embody mysterious states of becoming. In his own words: “The figures haunting the film exist in a strange invasive reality. They are subjected to subterranean forces linking them together. Their actions respond to an injunction we cannot understand, to which we have no access, but  in which we anticipate the imperious Sovereignty. In the heart of the forest an ancient archaic humanity rehearses scenes taken from a ceremony. It is a dream, or a nightmare. The story is woven with fear, sexuality and animalism that mutes edgy nerves. The film follows a layout of affective intensities through which the story develops into nervous intensities. This distinctive narration drives the viewer to test the world of White Epilepsy from the depths of his intimate experiences of fear and of desire, from the affective network that is his own. —Philippe Grandrieux