Stella Polare is a work of fragmented histories: of the catastrophes of empire, war, terror and resistance of our times. Its unseen narrator 'encounters' the inhabitants of an undisclosed port city in old Europe as they stroll along a jetty in the melancholic fading light of evening. These meetings are with terrorists, philosophers, writers, photographers, shopkeepers whose subjective accounts and speculations create a rupture within 20th century history and beyond. These sequences provide a central structure around which threads of image, sound and voiceover are interwoven to create an ambiguous and speculative narrative. Elsewhere the camera explores the interiors of opulently furnished 19th century apartments and museum vitrines of stuffed birds where the dusty faded traces of a glorious imperial past encounter the present tense materiality of the video image. Stella Polare is an essay film, occupying the ground between narrative and ‘experimental’ film-making. The way in which the film engages with history, reflects on time, memory and violent political action makes it a work of contemporary relevance.
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