FORGET ALBERTO FOR NOW

Director BEINA XU begins the film in an already well-known western convention of the art documentary’s cinematic language (static, calophilic, atmospheric shots), and pushes it into tautology. We see shots of Alberto’s desolate universe in Athens - streets, interiors, flies on the ceiling, a lamp hanging from the wall etc. – while the director’s intention in the voice-over, and the issues she raises regarding the process itself. A slight confusion is felt, but Xu breaks from it quite easily by introducing meta-cinematic elements, such as a series of shots that the director announces as they appear on the screen: Athens Sea, take 1; boat shot; Indian restaurant, exterior; Indian restaurant, interior and so on; thus revealing her own formal approach. We can attribute the value of the epistemological process that results thereby to the contrast between the images themselves and its seemingly playful, yet matter-of-factual line if questioning. (Emil Vasilache, BIEFF 2020)