Resuns
Céline Carridroit & Aline Suter
Switzerland | 2014 | 50 min
World premiere
Language : x-rum
Subtitles : French, English
Resuns, which means “echoes”, explores the diversity, sound and melody of Romansh, one of Switzerland’s four official languages. Spoken by a small minority, Romansh seems doomed to disappear in this age of globalisation. However, for the protagonists of this visual and sonorous poem, the language symbolises their belonging, identity and resistance.
“My language is like a costume. It gives me an identity that is very clear to others but that I personally struggle to define.” (CC, AS). Resuns, which means “echoes”, allows us to explore the poetry and subtlety of Romansh, one of Switzerland’s four official languages. The melody and the music of the words, which resonate through the valleys of the four protagonists, seem similar but have significant nuances. The language changes with just a few kilometres distance. While the little girl maintains a very natural relationship with the language, the poet experiences it as a struggle and the actress as a ritual; for the woman from Zurich, the “rumantsch” is the language of the heart, of nature. Belonging to a minority and faced with globalisation, this language that they share seems doomed to disappear. A visual and sonorous poem that evokes the relationship between a language and the last people who speak it: they defend it as their symbol of belonging, identity and resistance.
Manuela Ruggeri