Written and directed by Michka Saäl
Image: Michel Lamothe
Sound: Claude Beaugrand
Boom: Pierre Bertrand
Sound design: Claude Beaugrand and Fernand Belanger
Editor: Fernand Bélanger
Music: Lament for the Death of Pasolini, Giovanna Marini; The Prayer, Ernest Bloch
Production: Les Films de l’Autre
With Frédérique Collin and Simon Gonzalez
“This uneven film has undeniable poetry due in large part to the beauty of certain images. The framing is beautiful and composition rigorous and refined.”
“In her two films to date (Far from Where? and Nowhere, the Sea), Michka Saäl speaks of exile. Her films are striking for their strong images and the poetry that varnishes her texts, ancestral images that evoke tragedy (Hate, Resignation, Fear), and that place the origins of these emotions in the past… Nowhere, the Sea, an appealing medium-length feature despite its weaknesses, announces an oeuvre that is, above all, passionate.”
Photo: Alain Chagnon
“The characters (a vagabond and a teenager) don’t go far enough to escape the archetypes to move us, despite the mastery of Frédérique Collin, but the universe of Michka Saäl still wins us over. Nature is not only a place, but also a source of enchantment that nourishes dreams through its shape, its noises, its colours.”
Festival du Cinéma International de Ste-Thérèse
Rendez-Vous Québec Cinéma
Cinéma Parallèle, Montreal
“To inhabit the character of Arie, the actor had to take violin lessons. A few weeks of training, of course, did not make him a virtuoso (the music is dubbed), but they did allow him to manipulate the instrument credibly.
“At first, I looked for violinists. I listened to a lot of them, and finally understood they expressed themselves only through music. When I asked them to recite something, it was awful!”
Interview with Anne Normand, La Voix de l’Est, 3 July 1990
