The Lamplighter

In the Karakum sands, the only living plant seems to be the tree Dzhamal and her husband shepherd Nazar have set. Then it's war. When Nazar comes back from a convalescence at the hospital, everything seems to be just as before. But is happiness still possible ?

The third volume of the HORS PISTES DVD presents three films selected during the 2008 festival: 'The Music of Regret', 'Les hommes sans gravité' and 'In the Wake of a Deadad'. Each of these films deliberately challenges our perceptions beyond that of the usual director and spectator roles. The shifting of form and subject makes HORS PISTES unique. THE MUSIC OF REGRET is a musical in three parts that appropriates the genre and reaffirms its happy, fanciful aspects. The film is peopled with ventriloquist dummies, anthropomorphic puppets and oversized everyday objects. LES HOMMES SANS GRAVITE: Within the crumbling walls of a house in ruins two young men - a lord and a gypsy - get to know each other. Bodies and decor are filmed as echoes of one another, gracefully and languidly, as they continually threaten to to disappear into a narrative abyss, only to be saved in extremis by a volley of dialogues which are themselves nourished by the characters' own faint yet sustained curiosity for each other. IN THE WAKE OF A DEADAD: Following the death of his father, Andrew Kotting made a giant blow-up doll bearing his father's traits and filmed himself deploying it in places where the deceased could no longer set foot. Alone or with family or friends, the English filmmaker creates a frame, both literally and figuratively, and thus allows his deceased father to be reborn. More than simply the sum of its various installations, the film, set between documentary, happening and intimate short story, is an extremely moving and poetic reflection on the role and meaning of images in filiation and the grieving process.

This teen-oriented romance drama shows the joys and pitfalls of young love.