Hypnotic, fabulous, and enigmatic, the volcanic island of Faial takes on an otherworldly, almost mystical aura through the lens of filmmaker Paulo Abreu. The unreality of these opening images — a mountain barely glimpsed by the camera submerged in the sea — overwhelms us, immediately bathing the film with a beautiful, gentle sense of elsewhere. That mountain is the Capelinhos volcano. It towers over the small island in the Azores archipelago, its steep cliffs plunging into the clear waters of the Atlantic. For now, the giant sleeps peacefully. Arid and majestic, it’s made of rock and black sand whose grains seem to blend with those of the film itself. It is young, and yet has weathered winds and waves for decades. Its beauty is inseparable from its danger. And when it erupts, the film too bursts open. Asleep is a film about time — time that stretches and tightens, and about those things that rumble quietly, then explode as the days go by.

Charlotte Lehoux
Programmer