Aden – September 2, 1999

They’re used to having lines, a thread to follow, a master. Still fragile, the young students at the Strasbourg National Theatre were therefore a little confused when Nicolas Philibert arrived among them because, as with In the Land of the Deaf or with the inmates in Every Little Thing, the filmmaker was empty-handed. He asked them to take a fresh look at their city. And to come back with an idea, a sound, an image, a memory… In short, a pretext to perform together. Thrown into the real world, with everything that may seem violent and “clichéd” about it, these young apprentice actors could have been out of their depth. They are surprisingly spot on. The director has managed to destabilize them without any sadism and give them a proud fragility. And so, before our eyes, an approach to reality is built up that calls to mind the research of numerous contemporary visual artists. Involuntarily, Philibert has overturned a world and transformed this group of students into a shimmering constellation, full of promises and hope in the future. That of the theatre and of each one of them.