THE GHOST FROM MARIUPOL

LE FANTÔME DE MARIOUPOL

Switzerland | 2023 | 10 min

In the spring of 2022, dramatic accounts of Mariupol under siege are being relayed by media all over the world. In those same days, film director Marie Chemin opens her browser and walks down the streets of the city through Street View, searching for a time of peace: she sees advertisements on the streets, squares filled with people, commercial stands, a colourful merry-go-round. At the edge of the frames, distorted by the wide-angle lens, a bicycle draws her attention: who does it belong to? The Ghost From Mariupol is a long-distance correspondence between two fragile and frozen virtual spaces, between a present time disrupted by war and a peaceful past that no longer exists. Through the images posted on the Internet by Andrei – the bicycle owner, perhaps willing to leave a trace of his own passage? – Marie Chemin reflects on the ephemeral nature of digital images and on the paradox of incommunicability in a time where everything is, apparently, in a state of constant connection. (a.d.)

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