Arami Ullón prepares her third feature film, which will take place in Japan
- After setting her first two feature films in Paraguay, the director explores a very particular mourning practice, that of the “wind phone”
After setting her first two feature films (El tiempo nublado [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arami Ullón
film profile] e Apenas el sol [+see also:
film review
interview: Arami Ullón
film profile]) in Paraguay, the Paraguayan-Swiss director Arami Ullón now moves on to Japan. With the provisional title Llámame como sople el viento (in English, Call me as the wind blows), her third documentary was born from the need to reflect on different ways of mourning, and the cultural differences in expressing the pain of losing a loved one. The film is connected to the personal story of the director, already told in El tiempo nublado, which showed the relationship between a distant mother suffering from epilepsy and Parkinson's, and her daughter — the director herself — as she tries to balance her life in Switzerland and the need to take care of a parent who lives far away. It is in fact after her mother's death that Ullón, drawing on her experience as a migrant, began to reflect on the issue of mourning and the different ways of practicing it.
As explained by the director herself: “although the pain caused by death can be considered universal, the ways that people find to go through this same pain are not.” The film and the subsequent interest in the “wind phone” are born from a personal interrogation: “What are the tools used by those who, for whatever reason, cannot share their mourning practices with the community they live in?” In a capitalist society such as ours, these same practices, these cathartic rituals, seem to progressively lose their value, as underlined by the director.
Arami Ullón, who is currently developing the film, can count on a close collaboration with the creator of the “wind phone,” Itaru Sasaki. This is a phone that isn’t connected to anything. However, thousands of people from all over the world use it to call their dead. These phones, hundreds of which have appeared around the world during the pandemic, generate imaginary conversations that have helped many people process their grief.
The film's research, writing and financing team is made up of professionals from Paraguay, Switzerland and Japan. Aline Schmid from Geneva-based production company Beauvoir Films is taking care of the film’s production. Japan and Paraguay, as well as other possible European countries, will be among the potential co-producers of the film. In Switzerland, the project has received support from the Federal Office of Culture and the The Basel Film and Media Art Committee (Fachausschuss Film und Medienkunst BS/BL). The film can also count on the collaboration of the Paraguayan embassy in Japan. The producers are confident that Paraguayan institutions will continue to support one of their most representative female directors, who makes courageous and sincere documentary cinema shine far beyond Paraguay alone.
(Translated from Italian)
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