In addition to its annual November festival, the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) is proud to present Quebec premieres of major documentaries year-round with the RIDM+ series, presented by Télé-Québec. For the final screening of the season, cinephiles will have the chance to see Letter to Theo, a documentary by Belgian director and writer Elodie Lélu. Letter to Theo is the story of a return to the Greece of late filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos, a country ravaged by an endless economic crisis, overwhelmed by a steady influx of migrants, but still fighting to preserve its dignity. This highly topical film will be shown on Thursday, May 30 at 7 p.m. at Cinéma du Parc.
Synopsis
The filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos died on January 24th, 2012, knocked down by a motorbike on the set of his final film. He was surrounded by his team, of which the filmmaker Elodie Lélu was a member. In this unfinished film, he was telling the destinies of the victims of the Greek crisis. Ironically, the ambulance supposed to come to his rescue broke down because budgetary restrictions had made it impossible to maintain the vehicle. Letter to Theo is a letter to the late director told in the voice of Irène Jacob, in which images by Angelopoulos and Lélu are juxtaposed. The list of victims of the crisis has only grown longer, this destitution echoing another that Theo had sensed was coming: that of the mass arrival of refugees who find themselves trapped in Greece by the closure of the borders. Yet citizen resistance is being organized and fights every day to bring those in danger of obliteration out of the shadows.
Letter to Theo written and directed by Elodie Lélu
Belgium | 2018 | 63 minutes
Original version in French, English, Greek and Dari - with English subtitles
RIDM+ screening on Thursday, May 30 at 7 p.m. at Cinéma du Parc
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