Thursday, April 05, 2007

Le Dernier Caravansérail

Found this at Twelfth Night in Waterloo. A film adaptation of Théâtre du Soleil's Le Dernier Caravansérail, directed by Ariane Mnouchkine, in a 2-DVD set with a booklet. Published by Bel Air Classiques and distributed by Harmonia Mundi. ISBN 2-240-02543-3.

Four and half hours in length cut down from the six hour performance. Interesting doc included showing how scenes in the film looked on stage (but "stage" doesn't really do justice to La Cartoucherie, a former munitions factory.)

It is based on stories gathered from refugees principally from the Sangatte refugee camp near Calais which was shut down in 2002. Episodic with recurring characters but no protagonist as such. The Taliban when they appear are like demons tormenting the damned; the pimps and other human traffickers only a little less so.