Julie Morel &

Annik Leroy

La force diagonale portrays a number of people the filmmakers Annik Leroy and Julie Morel invited to a conversation that began with the word “fault line.” The portraits testify to a rupture in their existence, to their attempts to live with it and sometimes to the possibility of transformation. A forced or voluntary exile, a withdrawal from the world or the eruption of a traumatic event lead to unique life trajectories.

Initially, the film weaves subtle connections between successive stories, revealing the traces of external conflicts on different individuals. Next, the filmmakers devote a chapter to Hannah Arendt. For her, the interconnectedness of life and thought is rooted in her confrontation with Nazism as a Jewish woman, and in her forced exile to the US. From her early analysis of totalitarianism to her reflection on what she calls “the human condition,” in her political thinking Arendt centers the human capacity for beginning, the capacity to introduce something new into the world and share it with others. La force diagonale attempts to make this aspect of humanity—always threatened and yet not to be ignored—palpable.

Premiere on 9.09 at 5pm with English subtitles.

Regular screenings: 10.09 / 13-17.09 at 2pm (access with C0N10UR pass) with Dutch subtitles. With the C0N10UR pass , you also have access to all other regular screenings during the biennial, up to and including Effi & Amir's By the Throat on 5 November.