Memoir of Pain screened at PNCA

Director: Emmanuel Finkiel

Pakistan National Council of the Arts joins hands with the Embassy of France and Alliance Francaise for special screening of feature film Memoir of Pain/Memoir of War (La Douleur) was screened at PNCA.

Released in 2017, the film is based on autobiographical novel (Diaries) by Marguerite Duras. It takes us back to 1944-1945. France is under German occupation. A resistance leader is arrested by Germans and deported. It is then the account of his wife (also an author) waiting for her husband's return. The screen version has taken only part of the book for filming. Time, place and characters have been smoothly merged with cinematic intelligence. The first part takes care from last days of German occupation. The second-half brings us the period after Liberation. The wife waits for the return for which she has paid heavily with compromises. It is even more painful for her when many prisoners return but not him.

The director has used creative techniques and effects to portray the grief and loneliness with mirrors and smoke (she being a chain smoker now deals with painful absence).Melanie Thierry plays the strong lead with full command. We see her in a difficult role where she must wait, write, wait and write.

The film won several awards and Melanie Thierry was praised both by the critics and box office for a difficult role which she played with conviction. The film runs for two hours.

— aijazzgul@gmail.com