"The Island" by Anca Damian at BFI with live accompaniment and Q&A

We are proud to present the London premiere of the adult animated film 'The Island' directed by Anca Damian with live accompaniment by the Balanescu Ensemble + Q&A with director Anca Damian and composer Alexander Balanescu.  A CineConcert to be discovered at BFI Southbank!  

The event will be screened at British Film Institute Southbank, NFT1, on Friday, 6 Sept 2024 at 19:00.

Director

Anca Damian

With

voices of Alexander Balanescu, Ada Milea, Cristina Juncu 

Romania-France-Belgium 2021. 84min

Digital

Robinson is a doctor, and unlike the real Crusoe, he deliberately cultivates his solitude. All day long, he soliloquizes on the meaning of life, consumerist capitalism and his dreams. But his island in the Mediterranean Sea is overrun by migrants, NGOs and guards. And Vendredi is a castaway, the only survivor of a boat that sailed from Africa to Italy. On this island, where the world is ready to collapse, Robinson meets extraordinary people, and poetically confronts the absurdity of day-to-day life. Everyone's looking for their own paradise, and you never know who's going to save whom...

"Will you share your loneliness with me?" asks Robinson of the Siren.

Already making a name for herself with her previous animated films - "L'Extraordinaire voyage de Marona", "La Montagne Magique" and "Le voyage de Monsieur Crulic" - Romanian director Anca Damian this time takes up the story of Robinson Crusoe and offers us a whirlwind musical tale full of fantasy, at once joyful and bitter, realistic and poetic, which questions our contemporary world and its issues: solitude, migration, the environment. The film's immersive 3D sets are full of color, texture and movement. Everything is as beautiful as a Hawaiian vacation, but there's a sense of unease behind the chemical pink of the clouds or the green-blue of the sea. The music, written and interpreted by Alexander Balanescu and Ada Milea accompanied by the Bălănescu Quartet band, UK based (a string quartet led by Alexander Bălănescu, violinist, composer and founder, known for his collaborations with Kate Bush, the Pet Shop Boys and David Byrne) takes center stage, with its heady ritornellos. In a live concert, Alexander Balanescu’s score weaves the various narrative threads and action together, with the composer-performer's hypnotic voice playing counterpoint to the dizzying and dazzling animation. The live voices of the two sopranos complement the film’s original track in a unique interpretation that will electrify the room. 

For this event, Alexander Bălănescu created a live accompaniment with complementary music to the film's soundtrack. The list of musicians that will accompany Alexander Balanescu on the stage of the BFI for this unique concert is Una Palliser – viola, Chris Allen – cello, Patricia Auchterlonie Dodds – soprano, Charlotte Badham – mezzo-soprano and David Kent as technician.

The film received the award for Best Original Score at the Gopo Awards, the Romanian equivalent of the Bafta Awards. It also had a significant festival circuit, among which we mention Rotterdam IFFl, Busan IFF, Gotteburg IFF, Annecy International Animation Festival and Dublin IFF.

Biographies

Born in Romania,  Anca Damian studied at the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Bucharest where she majored in cinematography and later obtained a doctor’s degree in Arts, Cinema and Media. She worked as a director, screenwriter, and producer for several documentaries on art related topics. She was director of photography of two long feature films and several shorts. Her second feature the animated documentary, Crulic: The Path to Beyond (2011, Cristal Award in Annecy), has been selected in more than 150 international festivals like Locarno IFF, Telluride, New Director new films, and received more than 35 international prizes. Her extensive filmography includes Crossing Dates (2008), A Very Unsettled Summer(2013), The Magic Mountain (2015), Moon Hotel Kabul (2018), and Marona′s Fantastic Tale (2019). Her films were distributed worldwide and she has been awarded with numerous international prizes, including Cristal for Best Feature Film Award at Annecy, Best Director Award at Warsaw, Mirada International Award at Madrid, and Audentia Award by Eurimages. The Islandis her seventh feature.

Romanian born  Alexander Balanescu is a prolific composer as well as one of the most visionary and exciting violinists of our time. As leader of the Balanescu Quartet, which he established in 1987, he has been instrumental in transforming the string quartet from a ‘classical’ ensemble into a musical entity at the heart of the rejuvenation of new music, through revolutionising its repertoire and its relationship with the audience. Throughout his career Balanescu has drawn inspiration from his collaborations. To mention a few; in the world of dance, Pina Bausch or Meryl Tankard, in the theatre, with Pippo Delbono, Matthew Dunster (for the Royal Shakespeare Company), Chiara Guidi (for Compagnia Raffaello Sanzio); in film he has twice been awarded the Gopo prize (Romanian national Award) for best original soundtrack including 2016 The Magic Mountain (dir. Anca Damian) and the FIPA prize for The Scandalous Lady W (dir. Sheree Folkson, BBC films). Balanescu has refused to acknowledge divisions between different musical fields, consequently working with such diverse artists as Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars, David Byrne, Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys, Jack De Johnette, Ornette Coleman, John Surman, Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode and Grace Jones.

This project is co-funded by the Romanian Cultural Institute, through our Cantemir Grants Programme, which supports  international cultural projects of Romanian artists.