Le Dernier Caravansérail (Odyssées) (The Last Caravan Serail – Odysees) already exists. It is a stage production first performed in 2003 by the Théâtre du Soleil. It is a series of stories, tiny pieces of destiny, small parts of the lives of men and women. Those who are called refugees, illegals, migrants, and who call themselves, more nobly, travellers. It is an ocean of odysees heroic or ordinary, always dramatic, chipped off by time.
Le Dernier Caravansérail (Odyssées) now wants to be a film, a real film, a cinema film. Therefore, this is not just about filming what has been performed, it is about preparing for a new artistic adventure, and by way of cinema, to go deeper into the virtually inexhaustible original material. This is also a way of helping theatre to bolster the strength of its power to bear witness and to thwart ephemerality. Most of all, it is a way of keeping a promise to all those who told us their stories: we are giving them the chance to speak out. Leaving a trace of those who leave none, whose cries and murmurings go unheard, those who are always silenced.
This material then, from which was crafted Le Dernier Caravansérail, is a mixture of memories, tales, listened to, overheard and collected during an investigation, a search, carried out among Afghan, Kurd or Iranian travellers met while they were waiting in Europe, in Indonesia or in New Zealand (e.g. at Sangatte, Dover or Lombock) or in prison in Australia (Villawood).
The discipline required in moving trestles on wheels, the tightness of the space they allow as well as so many angles, narration free from chronological order, the multitude of languages used and the infinite possibilities of the characters whose fates bring them together, are all tools which the theatre has borrowed from the cinema (all types, fiction or documentary), tools which it has furbished with all its poetical force and which it must now return to the cinema.
Extracts from the director's preparatory notes
Distribution
Adapted from the show created in La cartoucherie in 2003 in coproduction with the ruhrtriennale :
Music : Jean-Jacques Lemêtre
Light : Bernard Zitzermann
Final cut : Catherine Vilpoux
Cameras : Jean-Paul Meurisse and Éric Darmon, Bernard Zitzermann
Sound : Philippe Engel and Laurent Gabiot, Cédric Delloche
Film set : Serge Nicolaï, Duccio Bellugi-Vannucini and Jeremy James
Costumes : Marie-Hélène Bouvet, Nathalie Thomas and Annie Tran
Production : Ariane Mnouchkine
With the Théâtre du Soleil : Shaghayegh Beheshti, Duccio Bellugi-Vannuccini, Sébastien Brottet-Michel, Sergio Canto, Adolfo Canto-Sabido, Virginie Colemyn, Olivia Corsini, Delphine Cottu, Marie-Louise Crawley, Eve Doe-Bruce, Emmanuel Dorand, Maurice Durozier, Sarkaw Gorany, Astrid Grant, Emilie Gruat, Pascal Guarise, Azizulah Hamrah, Dominique Jambert, Jeremy James, Kaveh Kishipour, Mansour Kohi, Marjolaine Larranaga y Ausin, Elena Loukiantchikova-Sel, Vincent Mangado, Jean-Charles Maricot, Judith Marvan-Enriquez, Stéphanie Masson, Fabianna Mello E Souza, Alexandre Michel, Seietsu Onochi, Serge Nicolaï, Pauline Poignant, Matthieu Rauchvarger, Francis Ressort, Edson Rodrigues, David Santonja-Ruiz, Andreas Simma, Igor Skreblin, Koumarane Valavane
And Children : Alba Gaïa Kraghede-Bellugi, Galatea Kraghede-Bellugi, Sarah Gougam, Miguel Nogueira de Gama, Dionisio Mangado
Production
Projection organisée avec le concours d'Arte :
Coproduction : Théâtre du Soleil, Bel Air Média, Arte
Avec le soutien du : Centre national de la Cinématographie
Diffusion sur Arte à l'automne 2006 :
