Rani

On the outskirts of a vast plain of clay, a majestic porcelain tower stands at the foot of the coal-black hills. The tower is home to Solus, a melancholy man with a rotund body crafted in a beautiful milky white ceramic. In his laboratory, Solus is experimenting with various different materials to create an unbreakable glaze that will cover the bodies of his deceased parents and prevent them from rotting. Unfortunately, Solus fails in his endeavour, until the day he meets Rani, a nomad woman whose body is made of raw clay and who creates strange sculptures, mixing clay and waste from an ancient world...

Director’s statement
Clay is at the heart of this story.
I grew up in a clay region, where my maternal ancestors had been making bricks and tiles for generations. For these farmers, working with clay was a seasonal and artisanal activity. In winter they looked after the livestock; in summer they pulled, worked and fired the clay. During the «trente glorieuses», this craft developed into an industry, the small brickyard in the family hamlet grew exponentially, and is still growing today... I love clay. I like working with it, I like its raw ochre colour, I like its brick-red fired colour. Clay is at the heart of this story, and so is the Tzigane culture. On this childhood homeland, gypsy camps would occasionally come and settle. I remember the gypsy children who sometimes came for a day or two to our local school. I remember their lack of discipline, which contrasted so much with our obedience. I remember the violence of the rejection that the gypsies suffered from the inhabitants of the commune, even from my own grandparents who had always seemed deeply humane to me. It was my failure to understand this rejection that led me to become interested in Tzigane history and then to discover and develop a passion for their traditional music.