PHILOSOPHY OF THE ENCOUNTER

Film by Tatiana Istomina
May 11, 2019 at 7:00pm

The puppet performance staged for video is loosely based on the story of Hélène Rytman, who was murdered by her husband, prominent Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser in 1980. It features life-size puppet dolls representing Hélène, Louis and several symbolic personages, created in collaboration with Montreal-based sculptor Mona Sharma. The dolls appear both comical and disturbing; they are activated by a masked puppeteer, her silent and somewhat sinister manipulations invoking the actions of forces outside human control. Richly colored and highly atmospheric, the film shows the two protagonists wandering about their flat, lost in a liminal space between dream and reality; they are searching for self-expression and meaningful connection with one another, but remain locked in their private fantasies. The silent narrative is accompanied by an original soundtrack by Brian Riordan and Susan Kuo; it underscores the eerie, emotionally and psychologically ambivalent mood of the story.