Lyra & Armin

Lyra, a solitary young trapeze artist haunted by the drowning of her brother Armin, lives suspended between grief and vertigo, reliving her trauma each night above the river where he died. When she encounters a mysterious man who looks exactly like her brother, missing for nine years, she is drawn into an initiatory journey between reality and magical realism. Guided through immersive sensory worlds shaped by sound and music, Lyra confronts her deepest fears: ghostly crowds drifting through underwater cities and violent industrial landscapes of metal and fire echoing the fatal accident. As she moves through these hallucinatory experiences, she gradually dismantles her trauma, until finally facing the river itself, rediscovering her voice and reconnecting with the world. Inspired by the cinematic universes of Wim Wenders and the Rhineland legend of Lorelei, the film is a contemporary feminist tale about grief, absence and healing.

Director’s statement
"Lyra et Armin was born from a deep desire to return to “our river”: the Rhine. Through the film, the authors reconnect with the cultural territory that shaped their childhood, imagination and artistic identity. Rooted in the landscapes and myths of the Rhineland, the project explores a borderland rich in memory and symbolism, while affirming the singularity and strength of its cultural heritage in a troubled contemporary world.

Beyond this intimate dimension, the film seeks to celebrate and preserve the “Rhenish soul” — a multicultural and humanist spirit forged by centuries of cultural blending between Celtic, Roman, Germanic, Scandinavian and French influences. The Rhine becomes a space where legends, histories and identities coexist and transform one another. Inspired by this unique syncretism, the film portrays a world where wounded beings can heal and destruction always carries the possibility of reconstruction."