Walking towards the fire. In a ceaseless stream of light, people, landscapes and objects lead us to mysterious regions. French filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski’s work is hard to classify - and all the richer for it. Together with his wife Michèle, whose musique concrète compositions form the basis of the sound design, Bokanowski offers a prolonged, dense and visually visceral experience of the kind that is rare in cinema today. Difficult to define and locate, its strangeness is quite unique.

Paris, April 1994. Young freelance journalist Antoine Rives is making a report on Westerners who have been repatriated from Rwanda, fleeing the massacres. He meets Clément, a student of Hutu origin whose Tutsi fiancée Alice hasn’t been able to leave Rwanda. Antoine convinces Clément to go back with him to look for Alice, and to let him film the journey. Their pact soon becomes untenable as they find themselves thrown into chaos. This is a journey through horror during which a young man’s First World illusions are stripped away as he wakes up to human tragedy.