Un Archipel

“On either side of the canal is a huge plain where machines are at work. They fill holes, move frontiers. Revival is underway. Demolition is in progress. Different and similar towns stretch out as far as the eye can see.” Motorways, shopping centres, walled doors: a truly haunted collection compiled by the guides of Un archipel, a mental and collective mapping of the East of Paris under reconstruction. Like the Aborigines who memorise maps of the desert through songs, the men, women and children in the film shed light on their familiar territory for Till Roeskens and Marie Bouts. The musicality of their songs inspires that of the editing, which interlaces their secret passages with a whispered commentary reminiscent of Jean-Luc Godard’s 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle. In its exploration of toponyms, the text remains playful but elegiac undertones are also present. By anchoring in situ the words of the inhabitants, often filmed on the move, these artist-filmmakers give their poetic gesture a political dimension: Un archipel undoes stone by stone the media clichés of Seine Saint-Denis.