Sólo

Artemio Benki / Czech Republic, France, Argentina, Austria / 2019 / Czech Premiere / 84 min.

synopsis

Martín Perano is a young Argentinean piano virtuoso and composer whose life has been turned upside-down by mental illness. He spent the past few years in the largest psychiatric hospital in South America, El Borda in Buenos Aires. After his release he returned to the nearly empty house of his parents, where his biggest concern was to learn to live without walls and to go back to the piano, which he played every day in the institute. The director patiently observes Martín’s return; in interviews with his loved ones, he learns more about Martín’s past, lyrically approaching the inner workings of a person obsessed with creation, capable of taking strength from their own hypersensitivity.

“The other patients sat in respectful silence listening to this curious sonata of fingers rapping the table. After a few minutes, Martín finished playing. Strong emotions could be read in the eyes of his audience, as though they had been listening to real music.” A. Benki

biography

Parisian Artemio Benki (1971) has lived and worked in Prague since the early 1990s. In 1994 he founded Sirena Film to be able to direct the short fictional documentary Moon Valley, which won the Ecumenical Jury award at the St. Petersburg Festival. He produced the films Marguerite (2015), Personal Shopper (2016) and Academy Award-nominated A Royal Affair (2012).

more about film

director:	Artemio Benki
producer:	Petra Oplatkova, Artemio Benki, Rebecca Houzel, Sergio L. Pra, Arash T. Riahi
script:	Artemio Benki
photography:	Diego Mendizabal
editing:	Valeria Racciopi, Jeanne Oberson
co-producer:	Rebecca Houzel, Arash T. Riahi, Sergio Luciano Pra