ዳኒአላ በዛበህ ዮሃንነስ

Atopias: The Homeless Wanderer, 2023

Single Channel, 26 minutes, 49 seconds, Colour, Stereo.

Directors : Daniela Yohannes and Julien Béramis
Cinematographer : Wally Fall
First Assistant : Axel Lafleur
Editing : Julien Béramis
Colorist : Yannig Willmann
Composter : Basile Andrieu
Sound Design : Julien Béramis
Sound Mixing : Martin Baudouin
Research and Editorial Assistance : Steve Shaw
Film Poster : Manuel Sepulveda

Atopias: The Homeless Wanderer is the second part of Daniela Yohannes and Julien Beramis' Atopias trilogy, three films grappling with geographies of migration, generational memory and trauma. Yohannes returns as the oil-coated protagonist trekking harsh natural landscapes of the Caribbean in search of a transformational portal. However, while the first film alluded to nascent identity formation of the protagonist as the Other and member of subjugated diaspora, something has changed since these original events. Now actively searching for a vital sense of belonging, the protagonist is still wandering, but her understanding of identity is accelerating.

Filmed in Martinique and La Désirade, Guadeloupe, these ancient islands' rugged topographies continue a thematic dialogue of the Atopias series. While providing the protagonist with a spiritual refuge from humanity's racist societal structures, nature is hostile and unforgiving in its own way, creating land that rejects visitors and refuses to yield even to innocents forced into them. Wind and enveloping cloud fog become a near-constant, dominating presence in this film, and all bodies of water are put in motion. To this end, The Homeless Wanderer seizes upon Western romanticisation of Caribbean life and Kantian notions of nature's awe-inspiring sublime and reshapes them, using their aesthetics to frame the intergenerational political violence of oppression, migration and survival.

With the support from La DAC Guadeloupe.

© 2024 Daniela Yohannes, All Rights Reserved

Trailer | Atopias: The Homeless Wanderer | 2023