Through many photographs, he tells the story and allows his story to be told by those photographed. This is where the brilliant documentary reversal takes place.
The dialogue is based on the Gospel according to St John. The apostles are played by friends (the disciples) of Boris Lehman, most of them movie-makers, filmed in front of the last house still standing opposite the new buildings of the European Union. Judas is played by Claudio Pazienza and Christ by Boris Lehman. The film was shot in a matter of hours on a Sunday morning, with an incredible decor in a street that had been razed to the ground by property developers, just before the police arrived.
The man carrying his body, his reels of film, his bag and his old Nikon, is Boris Lehman, he's also Sisyphus, Jesus Christ, and Ixion as told by Alfred Jarry in La Chandelle Verte. An essay on heaviness and lightness. The carrying man would like to fly, vanish into thin air, into light. When he meets another machine-man, who carries electronic pictures, his dream will come true.
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Trying to describe oneself is a movie about representation. How it is possible, through film, to describe oneself and describe others. With the camera as mirror and third eye. At first, a collage-like combination of letter-writing, investigation and journey, something between documentary and feature film. Finally, a portrait of Boris Lehman from 1989 to 1995, part II of BABEL.
