This woman, an island
With traces of Bava, Lynch, Jodorowsky and Ducournau, filmmaker Aurélia Mengin’s latest film delivers a “shocking visual extravaganza” like a purple, poisoned peach… split right down the middle to reveal its seductive heart. But surprisingly, it is not a heart of stone you will find but a more familiar one of flesh and human desires… if somewhat… fragmented. The world of Scarlet Blue treads a fine line between surrealism and heightened reality as forty-year-old Alter descends into a heady mix of depression and schizophrenia made all the worse by a schism with her mother. After a suicide attempt, she consults a healer, Léandro Lecreulx, who practices a mystical hypnosis in his isolated cave and as each session infiltrates deeper into Alter’s unconscious he reconnects her with hidden childhood fears. When Léandro gives Alter a Polaroid camera, each photograph from her “consultations” becomes a device to help piece together her broken memory.
Memories are key to this epic discussion with Aurélia as she reflects on her upbringing, detailed artistic process and her struggles as a female filmmaker. The following not only highlights how much of herself she gives to her art but also provides an inspiring and deeply personal chat I have the honour to share with you all…
There is an incredible passion (and pain) on display with Scarlet Blue. What is it you love so much about being a filmmaker?
I am convinced that cinema saved my life. I’ve never really adapted to the real world, which I find merciless and terrifying. “Creation” and imagination have always been my refuge and my territory of play and exaltation. In one of my short films “Autopsie des délices”, from 2012, I wrote the voice-over that the legendary French actor Philippe Nahon performs at the beginning of the film: “To create is to resist, and to resist is to live... to live.” It rings true: if I didn’t make a film, I believe I wouldn’t be on this earth today because my films are the only way I have found a way to knock on the door of the world with all my strength… and shout out who I am and why I live.
Writer and director Aurélia Mengin
I write and direct films with painful issues, such as my first feature film Fornacis (2018), which deals with the mourning of a loved one. Now, with my second feature Scarlet Blue, the film deals with mental illness and depression, and I find immense joy and a feeling of absolute freedom in being able to bring to the screen (with all my soul and my sincerity) powerful stories which, I hope, resonate with millions of others suffering around the world.
It’s as I thought… and so beautifully put. Aside from such personal and deep-rooted influences, are there any specific filmmakers that you feel have influenced you?
I grew up on Reunion Island, a small French island in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar. My parents’ house is an incredible place that feels as though it’s at the centre of creation; a unique environment for art and inspiration. My father, Vincent Mengin-Lecreulx, was a protean artist, and pioneer of Total Art, at the crossroads of surrealism and “art brut” (raw art). Along with my mother, Roselyne, they founded and built their own fantastic museum Le Palais aux 7 Portes, which is the first contemporary art venue in Reunion and still, to this day, constitutes a real cultural heritage for both Reunion and France.
“[My dad] taught me everything.
He was my mentor, my confidant
and my example of how to live…”
— Aurélia Mengin
Even though I appreciate the work of many directors, I have always been more drawn to my dad’s incredible output of work and from other international contemporary artists who came to reside in my parents’ place. If I talk about my dad so much, it’s because I spent my childhood in his workshops, among his monumental works. He taught me everything. He was my mentor, my confidant and my example of how to live… and, therefore, he was always my first source of inspiration. My parents have also always been my first supporters as a filmmaker and have always helped me to make my films possible. They produced my short films with me and my first feature. My father also helped to build the sets for my short films and often documented the production, including a behind-the-scenes documentary for Fornacis. I’ve also often found ways to write small characters for my dad to play in my films and was so happy for him to be in Scarlet Blue, where we find him as the boss of the gas station.
Aurélia's father Vincent Mengin-Lecreulx and mother Roselyne
Sadly, a few months before the filming of Scarlet Blue, my father was diagnosed with a devastating cancer. We were lucky enough to be able to share my shoot together in France because I invited my parents to join me during production in the French Basque Country. Both my parents saw the film several times at different stages of the editing, but my father died on February 15, 2023, while I was still working on the sound mix.
How long have you been making films?
Almost 20 years. In that time, I have directed music videos, around ten short films, and then Fornacis and Scarlet Blue. I have never obtained any support for my films from the Regions in Réunion or in France and no support from the National Cinema Center (CNC), so it's completely independent. In France, success is difficult and strewn with trials; even more for a self-made woman from Réunion who produces “fantastic” feminist films and I have fought with all my passion (and my convictions) to deliver each piece of work to date.
Aurélia's debut feature FORNACIS from 2018
With this in mind, you are the first woman in the history of Réunion Island to make a feature film with your shorts and feature debut Fornacis, which is hugely significant. How have you overcome the struggles in producing your art and, specifically, bringing productions to the screen?
My career is atypical and strewn with challenges. It’s no surprise that my greatest strength and determination came from my parents who have always encouraged me since the first day I decided to leave my university studies in mathematical economics to become an actress. Despite the fear that my parents had for my future, I will always remember my dad telling me: “If you are on the wrong highway, take the first exit.” This sentence gave me the strength to stop my studies when I was supposed to start a thesis… and, instead, started to direct. I am self-taught and have never attended a film school, however, I attended an acting studio school in Paris for three years where I learned to act and direct actors. As soon as I left school, my mixed race and physique as a woman from Reunion was a huge obstacle when it came to casting. There was no role for me, so I decided to write and direct my own films and act in all of them.
“I am convinced that my greatest
quality is to have a formidable capacity
for work… a true mastery of my visual
and aesthetic universe.”
— Aurélia Mengin
Despite the low budget, my dad always taught me to accomplish large-scale creations by always surpassing myself despite the “lack of silver”. He always told me: “Never give up!” That a lack of money is not an excuse to stop. I am convinced that my greatest quality is to have a formidable capacity for work… a true mastery of my visual and aesthetic universe. I always discern the potential of each setting and transform it into the image I see in my mind. Finally, the fundamental constraint when you have a small budget is to be able to shoot a film in a few days while remaining uncompromising on the quality and requirements of the production. I shot most of my short films within two to four days, “Adam Minus Eve” in nine days, Fornacis in 13 days and Scarlet Blue in 19. I hardly slept during the months of preparation for each of my films and I don’t seem to sleep at all during my shoots. It feels like I work 24 hours a day... and, therefore, seem to require very little sleep to recharge. This hyper-sustained pace of work is undoubtedly one of the main foundations that make the production of my films possible.
Tell me more about your experience producing.
I self-produced my short films, while “Adam Minus Eve” and Fornacis were with my parents. As mentioned, they always helped me and participated in each of my shoots. My father always said that we are like a circus family and that we have to help each other. I asked my dad to build several sets for my films and he was amazing, building exactly what was envisioned in my script. He also did all my “Making of…” films while my mom cooked for the entire film crew. My crew even stayed in my parents’ house because we didn’t have the budget to pay for hotels. Without the support and investment of my parents, I would never have been able to complete this journey. The success of each of my films in numerous international festivals has allowed me to still believe in myself and maintain my passion for making movies and I really hope to find a producer for my next feature film.
With Fornacis, the recognition of my films and my directing work in the cinema press and at festivals has significantly accelerated. Fornacis has toured the world in festivals with more than thirty official selections and won nine prestigious awards in many countries and in different categories, including a directing award, “Best Fantasy Feature Film” Award, photography, “Female Performance” Award (for the character I play), editing and “Originality” Award. The film was also released on Amazon Prime UK.
Two years ago, I received the Medal for “Ultramarine Commitment” for my work from the Minister of Overseas in France to further promote international culture on Reunion Island. This medal has incredible meaning to me and I am proud to be the first woman from Reunion Island to have directed a feature film for cinema… and I am even more proud when I know that I have worked so hard and that my journey has been so difficult. All these successes and this recognition of my work gave me the strength to write Scarlet Blue and to throw myself (body and soul) into shooting this film. For the first time in my career, I did not self-produce, because private financiers who had liked Fornacis financed the shooting of the film in the French Basque Country.
As alluded to already, this feels like a deeply personal film. Without giving too much away from what is punctuated at the end, I’m interested to hear more about where the impetus of this particular story began.
Ever since my first short films and first feature, I have explored the presence of the double, twinhood and the ghost. There is a red line running through my filmography that highlights the confusion between hallucinations, fantasies and reality. I build universes where reality and surrealism are treated almost in the same way and on the same scale; in order to create a real loss of reference for the characters in my films and also for the spectators.
When I was writing this script, I had a very clear idea of two themes that would be the main focus of Scarlet Blue: schizophrenia and hypnosis. I also knew that I wanted to treat schizophrenia not in the classic way — such as in a hospital — but, instead, use schizophrenia as a gateway to surrealism… as the purest expression of imagination and creation.
I also knew from the start what Scarlet Blue would have as a backdrop, which involved this complex mother-daughter relationship that we find between the character of Alter and Rosy. With this I also wanted to address the chaos that family secrets generate... and as the hypnosis sessions progress, the healer, Léandro Lecreulx — played by the amazing Italian actor Stefano Cassetti — discovers that Rosy is hiding a terrifying secret from her daughter and that this secret is partly the starting point of her schizophrenia.
Strange therapy. Healer Léandro Lecreulx (Stefano Cassetti)
Mental illness creates emptiness and loneliness around victims. During the writing, in the back of my mind, I had teenage memories of one of my best friend’s first schizophrenic attacks when she was around 16 years old. For several years she lived through terrifying and violent experiences and, misunderstood, she was plunged into great suffering and also partial amnesia. The doctors were powerless at the time and those around him were also somewhat disarmed. I tried to transcribe in my “artistic universe” the violence of the mental illness from which the character of Alter suffers; her solitude, her absences and her loss of connection to reality and the helplessness of her mother Rosy.
Scarlet Blue is an apnea dive into the bowels of a body and a brain suffering from depression and schizophrenia. I literally stripped myself bare to make a sincere, authentic and uncompromising film in which my goal throughout filming and post-production was to make something that was as powerful and as violent as this mental illness… while creating an incandescent and chilling film at the same time.
What were the challenges in shaping all of this into a film?
From the beginning of writing of the screenplay, my main challenge was to stage the terrifying and phantasmagorical imaginary that the character of Alter experiences during her crises the hypnosis sessions induce. The hallucinatory visions that punctuate Scarlet Blue are, for me, the real power of the film… as if surrealism devoured reality. Through this process, I tried my best to experience and film schizophrenia from the inside and not as a distant voyeuristic witness. Scarlet Blue is a profoundly free film, without taboos; designed (through a total immersion) to penetrate schizophrenia. I feel I depicted — without shame or censorship — the tortured soul, the chaos of bodies, the impulses, the desires, the wanderings, the solitudes, the silences and the fragilities of it all.
It’s a difficult world and all of these points seem more valid than ever.
People are, unfortunately, destabilised and often aggressive towards those who don’t seem to fit in with any kind of “normality”. I discovered very late — about six years ago — that I have Asperger’s Syndrome. Since childhood, I have suffered a lot from school bullying linked to the fact that other children found me strange, which then resulted in violence towards myself even as an adult, because I was “different”. All these painful experiences only led me to build a stronger armour. Scarlet Blue is a declaration of love to all people who feel as though they may suffer from a condition or mental illness (or specificities of any kind); a film designed for all those whose body and heart are covered with wounds and scars.
You obviously digest a great deal, and it certainly shows on screen. With cinema so new to your island, art in general must have seemed even more of a lifeline.
Contemporary art, creation, and cinema are part of my DNA. I breathe and I live entirely through the prism of creation… I don’t know how to do anything else, because the rest doesn’t interest me. Writing and directing films is my way of feeling alive and finding my place in the world, therefore art is my natural resource. It’s my oxygen. As you’ll have gathered, spending my life surrounded by the works of my father and international artists in my parents’ contemporary art place inspired me immensely; especially as these pioneers who created the very first contemporary art place in Reunion. They literally brought contemporary art to schools by creating the bridge between contemporary art and education, including colleges and high schools more than 30 years ago. My dad fought all his life to democratize art for as many people as possible in Reunion Island, convinced that creation and imagination were essential for the development for “freedom of thought”. Following his example, I also wanted to democratize culture through cinema, so I founded the Meme Pas Peur Festival, which is the International Fantastic Film Festival of Reunion that takes place every year in the Wild South of Reunion Island in the town of Saint-Philippe. I have been directing this for 14 years now and my co-organizer Nicolas Luquet and I are preparing the 15th edition which will take place in February 2025.
With all of this in mind, I believe that each of my films deeply reflects my attachment to the arts and creativity and that I am fully nourished by my roots in contemporary art which, in turn, also reflects my volcanic and mystical island. It’s my own little universe.
How were you exposed to cinema growing up?
My dad’s first love was cinema, but making films was too expensive, so he naturally turned to painting and contemporary art. As a true film buff, it was all about the cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Bunuel, Tod Browning, Charlie Chaplin, and Westerns. At the time, there were no cinemas showing these types of films in Reunion Island, so, when I was barely six years old, I spent my childhood discovering all these films on video cassettes my father showed. These were wonderful memories of the joy of cinema that all four of us experienced; my parents, my brother Pablo and me. Then as teenagers, my brother and I spent all our vacations renting five films per day in the video store next to the house. During this period, it was all about the great discovery of American independent cinema such as David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher, Terri Gilliam and Oliver Stone. I am always overwhelmed by films such as Blade Runner, Sailor and Lula, Mulholland Drive, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Natural Born Killers, Se7en, Requiem for a Dream, Mad Max and The Big Lebowski. But, I mustn’t forget the cinema of Pedro Almodovar, whose work I also adore.
Cinema is an incredible world that burns inside my stomach and under my skin and at that time in my life, as a teenager, I much preferred to spend my vacations binge-watching movies with my brother rather than going out with my friends. Films became my hard drug, but as they were not shown in my city on Reunion Island, I was waiting for them to come out on DVD to devour them. At that time, I never imagined I would direct films… it was just so impossible for me to imagine, so I focused on my studies; mathematics and economics… and every free moment I spent watching movies.
“I preferred to spend my vacations
binge-watching movies with my brother
rather than going out with my friends.”
— Aurélia Mengin
Then after my master’s degree, at the age of 22, I was forced to leave Reunion Island to continue my studies in DEA at the Sorbonne in Paris, and my little brother also left Reunion to study in Paris where we both discovered the magic of Parisian cinemas. We had a subscription and so we would go to the cinema two to three times a week. Cinema was our refuge because we didn’t know anyone in Paris and had a lot of difficulty adapting to this new life in France very far from our parents and our friends. It was then, six months after moving to Paris, that I decided to stop my DEA in mathematical economics to attend acting school and, as mentioned, very quickly I began to direct my very first short films.
Performance art. Aurélia stars once again in SCARLET BLUE
Was casting yourself in one of the central roles a necessity (therapeutically?) or did this come out of a choice further into production?
As referenced earlier, I attended the acting school for three years. I am an actress... and so in each of my scripts, I tend to write for myself. I take immense pleasure in playing the characters in my films and I also find it essential to engage with both my image and my body as part of the filming. I approach each film as a total work of art in which I perform in the world I create. My films revolve a lot around madness, desire and exposing my own body, which allows me to feel united in taking risks with other actresses and actors.
In terms of how they blend into one another, how did you approach directing actresses Amélie Daure and Anne-Sophie Charron with the split of personalities? Design, makeup, framing etc.
When I wrote the script, I didn’t have an idea of the cast in mind. The first actress I chose was Patricia Barzyk who magnificently plays the role of Rosy, Alter’s invasive and mysterious mother. Then we had to cast two other actresses capable of looking identical to play twin sisters while alternately playing the character of Alter who is also played by two actresses throughout the film. And these two actresses also had to resemble Patricia Barzyk, their mother in the story. So, Alter is a single character worn by two actresses. They both have such a disturbing resemblance in their faces and bodies, that once they are in make-up and in costume it is almost impossible to tell them apart. In that regard, I think the performance is very successful!
To bring schizophrenia and the split personality to life, I approached the character of Alter under two very different facets: the first facet represents Alter when she is connected to reality, which is the realistic part of the character performed by Amélie Daure. The second facet represents the double schizophrenic. That is to say, all the sequences where Alter is borrowed from hallucinatory crises, carnal impulses, nightmares, and all the sequences involving dementia. This borderline facet of Alter’s character is played by Anne-Sophie Charron.
How were you careful in illustrating schizophrenia in this complex way without losing the character/s?
Addressing schizophrenia in this way makes it possible to naturally and viscerally create the inner fracture of the character of Alter which materializes on the screen via these two different actresses, thus making it possible to truly touch the syndrome of memory loss and personality dissociation. With this approach of sharing the character of Alter between actresses, we truly touch on a sort of “mise en abîme” of schizophrenia, because, like Alter, the actress Amélie Daure cannot remember the episodes of the schizophrenic crises that the character goes through, because she did not experience them… since it was the actress Anne-Sophie Charron who was immersed in those moments.
The casting happened naturally because Amélie and Anne-Sophie have a very different approach to acting. Amélie comes from a more grounded and "realist" background, so wasn't at all familiar with this fantastically surreal aesthetic and organic approach of my filmmaking. The world of Scarlet Blue was very far away from what she was used to. So, she approached the character of Alter not so much with her body but in a more cerebral way. For all these reasons, we worked with her very closely on Alter’s mental state; on the closed body and face; and the lack of communication as Amélie was playing the character when connected to reality.
How different was it for Anne-Sophie Charron?
I met Anne-Sophie for the casting of Fornacis and although I didn’t choose her for a role, I was convinced that I would work with her on another project. I was really connected with her and the relationship she has with acting, which she approaches instinctively and physically through her body. When I started preparing for Scarlet Blue I remember sending an email at 2 am to her to let her know I was preparing to shoot my new film and that I had thought of her for a role. I explained all about this complex approach I had and playing a character who only speaks with their body and who has no dialogue but a lot of nudity. Without even waiting to read the script, she accepted right away by email in the middle of the night. The next day, we spent the afternoon together and I gave her the scenario. During this meeting, I explained how she would have to act in all the sequences of madness, fantasy and desires… that her main costume would be her own skin.
“I approach cinema as a
field of intimate research…”
— Aurélia Mengin
It was crucial she felt capable of shooting her nude sequences because the body and this thwarted phantasmagorical femininity are at the centre of the film. I recall her staring me in the face and saying: “I know your work and absolutely wanted to do Fornacis... and now I have Scarlet Blue, I know that you will film my body and my character with the beauty that is in all your films. I trust you completely.”
Scarlet and blue.
Throughout the filming, I was carried by Anne-Sophie’s confidence and impressed by her freedom of play; control of her body and totally letting go. She is an incredible actress, who, on set, follows her instincts. She is powerful and deeply human and humble. She managed to absolutely embody the schizophrenic part of Alter’s character and all of the madness and sexual impulses. There is this naturalness, spontaneity and strength in each of her sequences which were really not that easy to shoot, thus giving a real life to schizophrenia shaped by this imaginary and nightmarish world. Anne-Sophie also had this incredible humility to agree to play this mute side of the character, and through her humility, she was able to deeply embody the mental illness. She also plays the fish woman, this sort of ghost who follows Alter during the film, and, without hesitation, she had to eat a huge raw fish for two major sequences in the film.
All of this must have required a great deal of planning before the shoot. Especially with the staging.
Staging, framing and lighting, which I planned thoroughly. The lighting design, the sets, the costumes, the make-up and the camera movements are, for me, like an opera; everything must fit together as a perfect aesthetic in organic harmony. On the set, I knew how I was going to edit Scarlet Blue, so I knew that my editor Bruno Gautier and I were going to work with great attention to detail, especially when alternating with the two facets of Alter. This meant mixing in the two actresses to obtain that important (and perfect) illusion with just the right hint of strangeness (and difference) to allow the most observant of spectators to differentiate these two individuals onscreen. Sylvain Rodriguez’s cinematography and Daniel Santini’s important collaboration with the colour grading also helped create the two facets of Alter and to help magnify these two actresses and interpret them as one and the same character. All of this is punctuated further throughout by Nicolas Luquet’s incredible sound design.
You have spoken about the use of the body. There are explicit references to fetishism but also the way other objects of desire are fetishised; from cameras to cars. It all adds a beautiful texture highlighted by Sylvain’s cinematography. I’m interested to hear about the initial mood boards, the collection of these objects and how you planned to photograph it all.
Since my first short films, the strong use of colour has been omnipresent in my work. Colour is a central element in my films, not only in the lighting but also the costumes, sets and makeup. When it comes to other objects, I have been fascinated by vintage cars in particular since I was a child and have made reference to them ever since I shot my first short films featuring old American and French automobiles from the ’60s and ’70s. In fact, I collect strange and vintage objects. The sets, accessories and cars occupy a particular place in my work and so those important choices validate each object brought to the screen. The sets and each accessory are active characters in the film’s narrative, which is why I film them so attentively, which can certainly be associated with a form of fetishism.
Hot wheels
I stage the sets and all of the design and props of the film with the same intensity and the same rigour with which I stage the actors. I am convinced that the actors, the costumes, the make-up, the sets and the objects are part of a whole unity that must be filmed with permanence (like magma), otherwise, we miss the true experience and immersive nature of cinema. Providing such strict artistic direction in my films guarantees a fusion of all the components of the film.
This has to be all in the writing too?
Yes. From the writing stage, I plan the aesthetic with precision, which includes the choices behind of each object and the costumes; car, fabric, tapestry, cup etc. All these elements must fit together perfectly to create the final look of the film. While writing I set out to use these two integral colours of blue and red, which are obviously the very essence of the film. Blue symbolizes truth, healing, forgiveness and serenity. Red symbolizes fear, lies, schizophrenia, sexuality. The difficulty was to successfully navigate and explore the entire spectrum and shades of these colours throughout the film with their symbolism. So, ultimately, I wanted to succeed in mixing these two strong primary colours throughout, without one overpowering the other, finding balance and harmony.
The writing of the scenario is very detailed, the sets, costumes and lighting are widely described as well as the camera movements. During this initial process, I created a bible focussed on the aesthetics, which brought together around 500 reference photos of sets, fabric, materials, paint, hairstyles and cars. This bible accompanied me when preparing the film and throughout production allowing me to construct and communicate this world to everyone involved.
You clearly have a very strict artistic eye and absorb a great deal around you.
All the time. During the scouting, I am always accompanied by Nicolas Luquet and together we take hundreds of photos of the different places we visit. Once all the details are validated, for each piece I imagine exactly how it is lit, such as the use of neon lights that often become this small architectural detail for each decoration. I share all of these photos of the sets and the architecture of the lighting with Sylvain Rodriguez, so, as the cinematographer, he has as many elements as possible to be able to construct the lighting of the film. Sylvain is so passionate about film and put a great deal of effort into creating the exact mood I was capturing with the bible and what I wanted for each sequence.
Ocean hues
There is some interesting use of camera work that also reflects the mental state of the characters. I’m interested to hear more about your use of framing etc.
Framing and movement are crucial parts of my films. I have a very talented cameraman/steadicam operator René-Pierre Rouaux. Working with him was particularly stimulating because despite the fact that it was our very first collaboration, our complicity and our common vision of the framework was immediate when I was explaining what I wanted. He is magician with the camera and has transcended every movement and use of framing I communicated with him and very much hope to work with him again on another film.
How was the post-production?
The most important (and longest stage) was the editing and colour grading. On each of my films, I take weeks calibrating and work on each image entirely as if it were a painting; sometimes moving away from the original light source but trying to remain faithful to my original vision. It is a meticulous and intense process, but I love it as it is a chance for Daniel Santini and I to share our love of art and play with those saturated colours, deep blacks and strong contrasts. Together, we rework each image until we obtain the beauty of a painting.
In “light” of all this, there is both a pop art aesthetic (especially the supermarket scenes) and the feeling of a European graphic novel throughout. Again, were there specific artists or works of art and graphic literature you looked at as a shorthand?
As I have constantly referenced throughout this interview, there is, above all, my parents’ contemporary art museum that has always remained an important presence and influence on my life and work. I find my work to be truly personal and I have been continuing to build my narrative, aesthetic and my colour palette for the past twenty years. I believe that Scarlet Blue is a true accomplishment of all the years of work and research that I have put into each film. I approach cinema as a field of intimate research, and I pursue an approach to filmmaking similar to the one I had at university with mathematics. What I mean by this is that my goal is to question cinema; to create; attempt and experience new things; both narratively as well as aesthetically through visual, light, framing and sound. I want to find my own cinematic language that displays humanity in all its passion and pain. I love human beings, especially those whom life has jostled and crushed; who have suffered but found healing. I am hoping my films speak of the struggle to choose life… rather than death.
Would you like to add more on this... what an audience should ultimately take away from the film?
I shot Scarlet Blue without shame and without censorship to showcase the tortured soul, the chaos of bodies, the impulses, the desires, the wanderings, the solitudes, the silences and all our fragilities as human beings. This is a profoundly “free” film, without taboos… and it is also a declaration of love to all people who suffer from mental illness and all those whose bodies and hearts are covered with their own wounds and scars.
SCARLET BLUE has its UK premiere on Friday 23rd August at FrightFest. Book your tickets here. Follow Aurélia on Instagram and stay up to date on the general release.
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