Your ears are immediately tuned to the tides. Waves crash against rocks. As the story unfolds, this backdrop of ocean waxes with taller virulent waves and crescendo of sound. Near the shore, we see the austere landscape – barren, but reminding of life’s more delicious moments of solitude.
Here there are a few young women. They take care of the lighthouse in this remote corner of Brittany. They herd sheep. They live close to the land. Their lives are not so unlike their forebears, whom we meet in archival black and white film clips.
These are not only women. They are women living most of the time without men—all their men out to sea, or perhaps lost there. We learn the rituals of mourning for the unreturned presumed lost to sea – fathers, husbands, brothers.
A moving picture postcard of life in a remote area close to the sea, Une Fille De Ouessant breathes Brittany, then and now, to life. Dreams, like ships’ treasures, are made of luck that washes ashore.
If you love to travel via the cinema—in place and time—this is a top pick.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
To view the film, visit UNE FILLE DE OUESSANT on Vimeo.
Photos courtesy of FLYING FILM FESTIVAL
About the Author: Amy Munice
Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.
Amy hopes the magazine’s click-a-picture-to-read-a-vivid-account format will nourish those ever hunting for under-discovered cultural treasures. She especially loves writing articles about travel finds, showcasing works by cultural warriors of a progressive bent, and shining a light on bold, creative strokes by fledgling artists in all genres.
