It is a world disconnected from urban lights, from cell phones to dictate the rhythm of the days or from public lighting to punctuate the seasons. Clarity is rare, sometimes appears in the darkness. The halos melt into the mists, fireflies waltz, flashes take off in rhythm, evaporating in glowing plumes… These paintings surround the daily life of the Auzier family, a line of pyrotechnicians living in Gironde, between Préchac and Uzeste.
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It is a world disconnected from urban lights, from cell phones to dictate the rhythm of the days or from public lighting to punctuate the seasons. Clarity is rare, sometimes appears in the darkness. The halos melt into the mists, fireflies waltz, flashes take off in rhythm, evaporating in glowing plumes… These paintings surround the daily life of the Auzier family, a line of pyrotechnicians living in Gironde, between Préchac and Uzeste.
Originally, “A Country in Flames” was presented as a documentary on these masters of fire, with the tutelary figure of grandfather Patrick, the diligence of his daughter Margot and the good nature of his grandson Jean. With her feet in the sand and her eyes fixed on the tops of the pines, Mona Convert, an artist trained at the Fine Arts of Brussels and Lisbon and now based in Béarn, freed herself from the genre to construct a cinematic UFO. “I am very attached to reality, hence the documentary. But I did not enter the classic framework of a synopsis with a preconceived idea, a point of view angled in advance. In fact, I worked in reverse, filming as closely as possible, for four years, in all seasons, at all times, the life of this family. » In the middle of nature, the tribe has fun, feasts, prepares its pyrotechnic devices in scenes, sometimes crazy, slowly scrutinized by the camera.
Mona Convert, artist and director, filmed the fireworks family for four years.
M.C.
During long stays, the director and her small team settled in the Auzier farm. “Actually, there are two of us. I hold the camera, my companion poles it for live sound recording. » From this collection of rushes emerge atmospheres, blur, ambiguities, shadows and dense or subtle lights, without any special effects during or after filming. Film writing came next, drawing on this material accumulated over the months. “Patrick and Margot largely participated in the development of the film. Very quickly, I asked myself: can we build it like we build fireworks? What they have in common is sound, light, space, movement and, perhaps even more clearly, rhythm. »
The one Mona Convert chose is gentle, contemplative in the bursts of light, whether they come from a fire lit by a lake or from a cow in the night, revealed by the headlights of a car. In her dialogue between art and nature, the director chooses fixed shots, rare and crafted words, dark settings. The slowness and economy of dialogue will exclude it from prime time television channels, but Mona Convert, just 30 years old, already sees this surprise selection in Cannes as recognition from experienced peers. “I don’t have a distributor. Our means were very limited. It’s great to be welcomed into the profession like this. » His film is part of the selection of ACID, an association of filmmakers which since 1993 has had its own program of feature films, comprising around fifteen filmmakers among several hundred films from around the world. “A Country in Flames” will be screened on May 22.
