Synopsis
Symphony in Aquamarine is a sensorial and haptic exploration of our relationship to water, the sea, and the ocean. Filmed on four continents, Dan Popa is a spectral observer of the lives of sea workers, modern fishermen, but also everyday people rubbing shoulders at the beaches, or scanning the horizon. Symphony in Aquamarine is a tribute to life and to the indomitable desire to belong to the world, a poem in 4 acts with a maritime backdrop and traditional music that invites the viewer to travel along, not as an observer, but as a witness to the camaraderie, or to the solitude that binds people together. The film sculpts time and maps space to evoke a tactile and cataclysmic experience reminiscent of the films of Chris Marker, Johan van der Keuken, or Raymond Depardon.
A word from Tënk
As a filmmaker who captures movement, exile, and wanderings, Dan Popa couldn’t but dedicate his first feature-length to the ultimate travel landscape: the world of water. Drawing upon the centuries-old genre of the urban symphony, as well as the more recent development of sensorial ethnography, along with an intimate approach to the audiovisual poem, the auteur composes his film in four movements, traveling with ease from one continent to another. Staying awhile here and there in order to direct our attention towards the existence of various protagonists, the filmmaker isn’t searching to construct an easily decipherable narrative nor a philosophical discourse on life at sea, or indeed by the sea. The sequence of immersive and atmospheric scenes–almost entirely devoid of dialogue but magnificently elevated by traditional Moldavian choral accompaniment–invites the viewer at once into a daydream as well as into a sense of escape. In conveying a bit of the daily sensorial experiences of fishermen, sailors, dockworkers, and bathers alike, the film allows the public to imagine a sense of belonging that human societies have the potential to adapt to in relationship to an environment as immense and elusive as the ocean.
Charlotte Selb
Programmer and critic
