A sparse hotel room, a young woman sitting on a bed, getting up, wandering about. And then she suddenly faces us and speaks into the camera. She talks about her mother whom she adores, her father who abandoned the family, and of other men whose declarations of love she mistrusts, whose money she takes so that she and her three brothers can get to France, where the mother already lives and where the brothers are to receive a good education. Kelly is her name; she comes from Peru, from where she made her way to Tangier on the Moroccan coast via French Guiana. Prompted by the occasional question from the director Stéphanie Régnier, she talks about her adventurous journeys, her life in French Guiana, about how she falls in love, slips into prostitution, about moments of happiness and hurt. She is angry, she jokes, repeats dialogues, becomes melancholy, then turns defiant, letting a personality shine through that is tough, streetwise, and pragmatic, but also affectionate, imaginative and able to enjoy the moment. Her lively and compelling monologue is interrupted by shots of the flat roofs visible from the hotel room, where people pursue different activities which seem to obliquely comment on Kelly’s story. And there are shots of the sea, of boats and big ships passing by, and the coast of Gibraltar in the distance. Once in a while we hear the quiet voice of a person, seemingly a local from Tangier, who remembers Kelly as if from the future, who vaguely recalls her story and wonders what happened to her and wishes her well.
Youth Jury award, Cinema du Réel 2013; Etoile de la SCAM 2013; Price SCAM discovery 2015
France 2013, colour 67 mins. With English subtitles.
Directed by Stéphanie Régnier. With Kelly.
Part of Promised Land
