A régi nyár

The film opens with a brief musical selection of golden oldies. These are blasts from the past, even if most of them are still popular. Could it be nostalgia? Or do they serve more as an introduction to the main character, who had once been a successful actress? Or perhaps a satirical element that tactlessly reminds us of who our divas sang for amid the whirlwinds of history?

It has been a long time since we thought of Cécile McLorin Salvant as merely the promising winner of the 2010 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. Her expressive voice capable of conveying profound emotions and refined sentiments, her virtuoso improvisation, and her brave, experimental combinations of styles have now come to represent a point of reference to a new generation.

Recirquel’s new production, Paradisum explores the myth of rebirth following the silence of a destroyed world, where the means of communication is the body, and the only common language is movement. The creatures of this idyllic existence unfold from the ever-changing, swirling natural forces of the ‘fabric of life’ that pulsates around them, so they can reach the anima mundi, the world soul, through scenes of purification, birth, awakening and ritual.