the essential
After festivals in the USA, Romania and Croatia, the documentary “April in France” was screened where it was filmed.
“At the checkout, Béatrice refused people, a lot of them: “the 185 places were taken in half an hour”. Full house. David Boaretto admits to being a little “petrified” to present his film to the Armagnac public, this one that he filmed! “April in France” has already received an extraordinary reception in Greece, at the Thessalonik International Documentary Festival, has been selected in festivals in the United States, Romania, Armenia, has made a hit in Croatia. The film was therefore previewed in France at Barbotan. The director finds the actors of his documentary there, “at the crossroads of a philosophical tale and even a fairy tale”.
For the first time, the young heroine attends the screening: April is in the room. At the age of 10, she found the little girl forced to settle in France, in Paris then in Labastide-d’Armagnac, where her great-grandfather, Gérard Vulliamy, lived. He rests in the cemetery where she will “meet” him as well as those who knew him in the village. She feels the emotions that went through her then.
The public is deeply touched by the values conveyed, the simplicity, innocence, naturalness, openness, gift of observation, carefreeness and depth. April lives without screens and allowed herself to be filmed thanks to the relationship of trust and freedom. Everything is possible at his age, even establishing a link with this great-grandfather, making him participate in his life. The childish vision of life, death, old age, simple relationships, the way of moving from one subject to another, of adding gravity or lightness, are treated with accuracy and tenderness. An idea born 10 years ago, a film shot in six months in the Gers, the Landes, the Pyrenees, with a camera, a year of editing by David Boaretto for a spontaneous and poetic result!
Catch-up session Friday, November 22 (second preview) in the presence of the director at 7 p.m. at the Armagnac de Barbotan cinema, with the assistance of the Via Cultura association.
