Stars of Gaomeigu

At the Gaomeigu Observatory in China, the Naxi people scan the sky, convinced they are the descendants of immortal beings living there, abandoned on earth to watch them. Between astronomy and legends, Marko Grba Singh (Pale, VdR 2013, At Least We’ve Met, VdR 2012) seems to compose a mysterious and polysemous tableau. From folk tales heroes such as William Tell, Prince Marko or Sanduo for the Naxi, passing by a miraculous catch, Gods besotted with each other, or the absence of walls built around a city because of the ambiguity of Chinese characters, Stars of Gaomeigudresses the bodies and contemporary images of mythological tales. Beyond the narrative fertility of this device, through the careful presence of the filmmaker throughout the film, we see the emergence of his perspective of a country that probably constantly eludes him and on which he can project only his own images, with humour and sensual audacity.