Synopsis
From Lima to Quebec’s great north, through Patagonia and back up across the Americas, Carlos Ferrand takes us on an extraordinary journey in search of our American identity. Common to all of these countries, the First Nations are an essential part of this quest, thanks to their fundamental cultural influence as well as the revolutionary stand they took in making claims to build a better future. A wonderful road trip movie.
A word from Tënk
Carlos Ferrand’s journey across the Americas wasn’t by car. On horseback, on foot, by train: his was a magical caravan whose form emulated the irregularities of the terrain and reinvented itself in the eyes of guests who joined him for short encounters. Americano is a film of encounters, thoughts, and wandering, and Ferrand the nomad retraces his steps, drags his feet, takes flight, crosses over. He wears out his shoes on rocky ground while his mind roams and his sidekicks, old friends from bygone eras, open the doors to a grandiose and monstrous America that is equally capable of the vilest lows and the highest elevations. We come across ghosts of dictators, cemeteries of murdered women, peoples wiped from history, women who communicate with animals, child-transforming sorceresses, filmmakers with elephantine memories, volcanoes and mountains, prairies and snow. Americano is a film of colossal dimensions that spans time and space with the lightness of a feather. It’s a love story to swell your heartstrings, the voyage of a man whose individuality depends on others, and who has the humility and grandeur to remind us of that fact.
Naomie Décarie-Daigneault
Tënk's Artistic Director
