Swiss director Tobias Nölle, who won the Panorama FIPRESCI Award at the Berlinale for Aloys [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Tobias Nölle
fiche film] in 2016, now returns to the same section with a documentary, Tristan Forever. Made in collaboration with the protagonist, French doctor and filmmaker Loran Bonnardot, who is credited as the author of the idea, co-director and executive producer, the film follows him in his attempt to settle for good on Tristan da Cunha, a volcanic rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, considered the most remote inhabited island in the world.

It takes eight to ten days on a boat from Cape Town to reach Tristan, as the locals simply call it, and Bonnardot has been coming for 30 years, having befriended Martin, a fisherman. He has worked with Doctors Without Borders for a long time and doesn’t have close relations with his family. He has just broken up with his girlfriend, so nothing is keeping him in Paris, his hometown that he says he never felt he belonged to.

While the local community decides whether to give him permanent residence, he builds a house, and having brought his pianino along, he offers free classes and also appears as a colourful guest teacher at school. Reluctant to work as a doctor owing to his war-zone experiences, he gets a job in the local grocery store, and gets close to the owner, Glenda. But despite a clear wish to sever ties with his past, does he have the wherewithal to stay on his own in such an isolated place, with no internet or mobile phones, and with his father in a serious condition in a hospital back home?

In 1961, the volcano on Tristan erupted, and its 260 inhabitants were evacuated to England. The film is intercut with TV archive footage from the time showing how islanders adapt, and a voice-over of one of the women peppers the present-day footage. These scenes alternate with the emotional and psychological challenges that Loran is going through, counterpointing the old departees’ unshakeable wish to return with his dilemmas.

Nolle is also the cinematographer and films in an immersive, impressionistic way. From Loran’s gruelling trip to moving into a rental hut and to his hikes on the island and clumsy fishing attempts, Nolle has a knack for composition and for knowing just the right distance to keep from his protagonist depending on the scene’s needs. And since this film is a collaboration between the two, one can picture them preparing it together, so that the viewer really gets to know Loran’s inner world. It is an approach that imposes questions about the nature of documentary filmmaking, but the result is a finely nuanced psychological portrait of both Loran and life in this isolated place.

The island itself is spectacular, with lush foliage covering the sides of the volcano, which is often shrouded in fog, providing for captivating images. The fauna ranges from indigenous penguins (one of these appears to have become Loran’s pet), seals and an abundance of sea creatures to domesticated animals, especially sheep, which the protagonist learns to catch and shear. It is an isolated paradise, and a challenging one to stay in, which is elegantly reflected in the lightly varying, atmospheric score by Michael Sauter. All this makes Tristan Forever a thought-provoking piece of documentary cinema and a masterfully crafted picture.

Tristan Forever was produced by Zurich-based Hugofilm Features, and Rediance has the international rights.