Mariner of the Mountains

Brazil / France / Germany 2021, 98 min, Arabic, French, Portuguese and Tamasheq, Hebrew & English subtitles

He was born of a love affair that ended for some unknown reason. Two young researchers went back to their home countries after their academic training in the US. His pregnant mother returned to Brazil and raised him there. His father went back to Algeria, then traveled to Paris and never returned to the woman and child who waited for him. Now, for the first time, filmmaker Karim Aïnouz sets sail for his father’s homeland, a small village in the Atlas Mountains, in search of his roots and perhaps the life he could have had there. In imagined conversations with his mother, he tries to merge her stories and longing with the new landscape and people he encounters. The sounds, the tastes, the faces—all awaken in him memories that aren’t fully his. He may be a tourist in this place, but he isn’t a stranger.

Previous Festivals: Festival de Cannes, CPH:DOX, Karlovy Vary, IDFA

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