"for my grandma
It was on the 4th of January, when I looked outside the window over the dead body of my beloved grandma and saw the cold winter breeze coming to get her soul. First, I saw the breeze move through the naked branches of some trees across the road, then it reached the flag near to the apartment, turning its awkward movements into a restless dance. Finally, the breeze slipped over the balcony and caressed the frames making a dim whistle sound softly. The room was silent, everyone heard the calling.
What is life, I asked myself, what is death? How can everything alive be dead already?
When the night had fallen, I went to my new home by bike. I wanted to follow, for one last time, the route that was so known to me. On my way, I saw the breeze again moving between the wet grass near the lighted street. I felt it on my naked cheeks, on my naked hands and ankles. I knew my grandma was there, all around me now, expanding. She was free. I whispered to her that if it ever comes to feel lonely, she can come and visit me because I know how loneliness can be."
In the short film Winter Breeze, the butoh performer embodies the soul of my dead grandma that is dealing with a new state, the one of not-being. She floats within the cold winter breeze seeking for a way to pass from the living condition to the dead. Everything is unknown; the body, the mind, the surrounding world, the destination.
Short film, 2023
Duration 10 min and 24 sec
Performing by Butoh dancer Polly Vlachou
In collaboration with Polly Vlachou and Dimitris Vernikos
On the background: my grandma walking. One of the shots of her I filmed four months before she passed away.
The following video is a short version, for the whole video you can contact me.
Still from the short film Winter Breeze | 2023
Still from the short film Winter Breeze | 2023
Still from the short film Winter Breeze | 2023
Still from the short film Winter Breeze | 2023
Still from the short film Winter Breeze | 2023
