Country: Belgium, France, Switzerland
Year: 1996
Duration: 115'


Nellie, Abel, and their daughter Raye live near a lighthouse deep in the countryside. The mother is white. She is a microbiologist who is examining the algae of the salt marshes. The father is black. He was an important athlete, then a coach. Now he runs along the paths by the marshes. Their "mixedrace" daughter is a singer. One day the family balance is broken when Raye leaves. It does not matter where one is going. "If you talk the talk, you better walk the walk". A bit later, her father leaves too, taking a ship to Odessa. Nellie remains by herself. Without going anywhere, she too has a personal trip to take.

"The director of Route One / USA has once more gauged the state of a continent. Together with three characters, a map, and a compass, he takes us back to this old and too wellknown Europe. And he succeeds in the miracle of making us see it as if for the first time" (Laurent Roth, "Cahiers du Cinéma", 507. November, 1996).

Biography

film director

Robert Kramer

Robert Kramer was born in New York in 1940. He studied philosophy and Western European History at Swarthmore College and Stanford University. He has written two unpublished novels, numerous poems, plays and short stories. In 1965 he organized the Newark Community Project (N-CUP) in an African-American community. He worked as a reporter in Latin America for various American publications. He worked with Peter Gessner on a film on the guerrilla movement in Venezuela. In 1966 he created Alpha 60 with Norman Fruchter, Robert Machover, Peter Gessner, and Mike Robinson. It was a sort of free cooperative of director-producers who later were channelled into the Newsreel movement, which Kramer helped found and organize. Kramer's Newsreel experience lasted from 1967 to 1971, during which about sixty short- and middle-length films were produced - documentaries, films of struggle, and agitation films. In the early 1980's he moved to Europe, and he currently is living and working in Paris.

FILMOGRAFIA

Regista/Director: Faln [Faln, 1965, In the Country [In campagna, 1966], The Edge [Il margine, 1967], Ice (id., 1969), People's War [La guerra del popolo, 19691, Milestones [Pietre miliari, 1975], Scenes from the Class Struggle in Portugal (Scene di lotta di classe dal Portogallo, 1979), Guns (Fucili, 1980), Un grand jour (en France) - Naissance [A Great Day (in France) - Birth / Un gran giorno (in Francia) - Nascita, 1981], A toute allure [As fast as you can / A tutta velocità, 1982], La peur [The fear / La paura, 1983], Sarkis al Woodrow Wilson - Musée d'Art Moderne [Sarkis at Woodrow Wilson - Museum of Modern Art / Sarkis at Woodrow Wilson - Museo d'Arte Moderna, 1984], Notre nazi / Unser Nazi [Our Nazi / Il nostro nazista, 1984], Diesel [Diesel, 1985], Un plan d'enfer [A Plan of Hell / Un piano infernale, 1986], X-Country [X-Country, 1987, inedito], Doc's Kingdom [Il regno di Doc, 1987], Route One / USA [Route One / USA, 1989], Dear Doc [Caro Doc, 1989, inedito], Maquette (brouillon de film) [Scale model (Draft of a Film) / Modello (Abbozzo di film) , 1990, inedito, incompiuto], Berlin 10/90 [Berlin 10/90, 1990-91], Sous le vent [Leeward / Sottovento, 1991], Series of Videoletters: Steve Dwoskin / Robert Kramer [Serie di videolettere: Steve Dwoskin / Robert Kramer, 1991, inedito], Ecrire contre l'oubli: pour Fidel Intrusca Fernández, Pérou [Writing against forgetting: for Fidel Intrusca Fernández, Peru / Scrivere contro l'oblio: per Fidel Intrusca Fernández, Perù, 1991], Point de départ / Starting Place (Starting Place / t.l. Punto di partenza, 1993), La Roue: Greg Lemond - Andrew Hampsten [The Wheel: Greg Lemond - Andrew Hampsten / La ruota: Greg Lemond - Andrew Hampsten, 1993], Walk the Walk [Walk the Walk, 1996], Le Manteau / Der Mantel [The Mantle / Il manto, 1996], Ghosts of Electricity [Fantasmi dell'elettricità, 1997].
Attore, sceneggiatore / Actor, screenwriter: Gestos e fragmentos (Gestures and Fragments / Gesti e frammenti, 1980-82) di Alberto Seixas Santos, Der Stand der Dinge (The State of Things, Lo stato delle cose, 1981) di Wim Wenders.

Cast

& Credits

Director and screenplay:Robert Kramer.
Director of photography: Robert Kramer, Richard Copans, Katel Dijan, Blaise Bauquis.
Art director: Stéphane Lévy.
Editor: Christine Benoît, Beatrice Wick, Keja Kramer, Robert Kramer.
Music: Barre Phillips.
Sound: Olivier Schwob, Bernard Seidler.
Cast and characters: Jacques Martial (Abel), Laure Duthilleul (Nellie), Betsabée Haas (Raye).
Production company: Ruth Waldburger, PierreAlain Schatzmann per Avventura Films, Vega Films, Télévision Suisse (SSR).
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