Screened as part of NZIFF 2008

In the City of Sylvia 2007

En la ciudad de Sylvia

Directed by José Luis Guerin

Awash with the sights and sounds of the French city of Strasbourg, this lyrical tale of a young man's search for his lost love is a purely cinematic, virtually wordless treat for romantics and people watchers.

France / Spain In French with English subtitles
85 minutes 35mm

Director, Screenplay

Photography

Natasha Braier

Editor

Núria Esquerra

With

Pilar López de Ayala
,
Xavier Lafitte

Festivals

Venice, Toronto, New York, Vancouver 2007; Rotterdam 2008

Elsewhere

Elegant, sensual and light as air, this film teases the purest movie pleasure out of the mix of curiosity, desire and invisibility you might feel as a traveller in a foreign town simply gazing at beautiful strangers as they go about their unknowable business. Superbly shot, edited and soundscaped, Sylvia celebrates the romantic, voyeuristic allure of the medium at its most exultingly rarefied. — BG

"A young man sits in a café, sketching the women around him. He consults a notebook filled with reminiscences of four years prior, when at the same café he met a woman named Sylvia. His eyes flit about as he soaks up the atmosphere, and then, suddenly, he thinks he's found her. And follows her... The unnamed city is Strasbourg, with its trams, riversides and cobblestone streets echoing with the sounds of walking. But we could be in any European city, and 'Sylvia' could be anyone in this universal film." — Vancouver International Film Festival