Beau Travail

An inspired reimagining of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd transferred to the French Foreign Legion in the East African outpost of Djibouti, Beau Travail unfolds like a dance, an engaging masculine ballet that goes beyond conventional ideas of transgression or homoeroticism. There is choreography in the movements between shots and in the movements of the actors. A film about image, sound and rhythm, and the way in which they create understanding beyond storytelling. To watch it is to wonder about the process behind it.

Edited by Nelly Quettier (1957), who has worked on a number of films with Claire Denis, Leos Carax and Barbet Schroeder, among others. Nelly will be at l’Alternativa to introduce the film and take part in the Roundtable: Four Paths.