An anachronistic firefighter, a quotidian poet, and an expert soup-maker, Ducarmel also plays in a competitive basketball league. There’s only one problem with his hobbies: finding a babysitter to look after his daughter. Moreover, when he dozes off in the evening, he dreams… a little too forcefully. In his bizarre dream world, a beguiling blue book reigns, love looms, and he is the best basketball player of all time.

irlande cahier bleu

Trying to freeze time is an illusion. Whatever we do, life unfolds in one direction. Memory is a Dying Horse is yet another desperate attempt to challenge the irreversibility of time. A sparse, raw, somehow childish collage of reminiscences filmed on Super 8 between Syria, France and Canada. The film is accompanied with musical experimentation by Stefan Christoff.

Memory is a Dying Horse

"In the fall of 1994, I left Syria for a new country. On my way, I spent a night in Amman, carrying my sorrows and my hopes in a suitcase. After Twenty-five years in Montreal, I witness, helplessly, my old country being torn by civil war.  Today I'm revisiting Amman, also with a suitcase".  Samer Najari

How far this road take us?

A lone gunman perched on a rooftop grows bored while awaiting his next victim. A mother records a video for an audition for a televised singing competition. A young girl carries water containers and must cross a dangerous area before nightfall. Distant explosions echo, nothing alarming. Time stands still, allowing the three figures to find refuge in their luminous dreams. The sun will set soon, carrying them away. Rituals Under a Scarlet Sky tells the tale of a daily life where hope survives despite the tragedy that attempts to engulf it.