À vendredi, Robinson | See You Friday, Robinson | Bis Freitag, Robinson (2022)
Synopsis
À vendredi, Robinson offers a brilliant insight into the role of the artist in the 20th and 21st centuries.
A few years ago, Mitra Farahani had an idea. Could she engineer the encounter of two great filmmakers who, although they belong to the same generation, have never met in person: Jean-Luc Godard, the Swiss master who needs no introduction, and the lesser known Ebrahim Golestan, whose literary and film work is the bedrock of modern Iranian culture – two hermits of cinema’s technical and political revolution. --Berlinale
"We should start with a correspondence, maybe we will not correspond to one another. Ebrahim can send me a letter this Friday, and I'll answer him next Friday. So, see you Friday, Robinson!" And so, Jean-Luc Godard stages himself in his daily thought, wisely desperate, and sends images and words from Switzerland to the other side of the Channel. In his mansion in Sussex, Ebrahim Golestan tries to decode these UFO-messages and skilfully seeks to bring them back to the appearance of reason. And so on, until the day a veil falls over the two Gods on the run. Does the existence of poets still have any meaning in these times of distress? —Écran noir productions
A few years ago, Mitra Farahani had an idea. Could she engineer the encounter of two great filmmakers who, although they belong to the same generation, have never met in person: Jean-Luc Godard, the Swiss master who needs no introduction, and the lesser known Ebrahim Golestan, whose literary and film work is the bedrock of modern Iranian culture – two hermits of cinema’s technical and political revolution.
A meeting proves to be out of the question but, just as Farahani had to adapt the unforgettable Fifi Howls from Happiness after the unexpected death of her protagonist, this new setback stimulates another creative approach. Farahani suggests a correspondence, to which a hesitant Godard, playful as ever, replies: “Maybe we will not correspond to one another”. Contemplating their common and/or divergent odysseys, the maestros begin sending each other a message, every Friday, for 29 weeks. À vendredi, Robinson offers a brilliant insight into the role of the artist in the 20th and 21st centuries. With death now a tangible possibility, the two great men also consider their own end, as intellectuals and critics of the times. One thing is certain: they won’t be facing it with anything less than razor-sharp insight and, of course, humour. --Berlinale
About this movie
Title: À vendredi, Robinson | See You Friday, Robinson | Bis Freitag, Robinson (2022)
Directed by: Mitra Farahani
Date of birth: 27 January 1975, Tehran, Iran
Writing credits: Mitra Farahani
Year: 2022
Country: France | Switzerland
Language: French | Farsi | English
Color: Color
Runtime: 96 min.