“What language and the body have in common”, as Mladen Dolar points out, “is the voice.” The voice that whispers and the voice that shouts. The voice speaking in a foreign language, broken, with an accent, words mispronounced. The voice of a lover, soft, distant, singing. The voice in transition, the voice transforming. The voice that transforms images, and images that transform the voice. Yes, there is always a text to be spoken, recorded repeatedly, until the rhythm is achieved, till the pitch is found, reminding us that it takes an unavoidable effort to be understood, speaking and listening requires work. Or there is speech that gets recorded in a decisive moment, questions left unanswered, hesitating and overflowing, back and forth, in front and behind the microphone. But there is also always a voice, singular, becoming, enveloping, touching, wave by wave, word by word, with no words at all, breathing in, breathing out and then back in again. The voice dissipates, and a color remains. Which one is it for you?
Dane Komljen, born in 1986 in the former Yugoslavia, studied film direction as well as art. Following multiple short films and his feature film debut ALL THE CITIES OF THE NORTH (2016), he presented AFTERWATER at the Berlinale Forum in 2022.
