As a firm believer in resurrection, I approach the subject of “DEATH” not as the closing of a final door, but as a beginning. In my short cinepoem “DEATH” I begin with a golden skull, and conclude with the silver death mask of the notorious gangster, John Dillinger. In between we see the bunks and bodies of two of the Heaven’s Gaters, deluded into believing by an evil cult that death by suicide would deliver them to a waiting flying saucer. Then a succession of silver embossed tantric skulls of enlightened ones lead us to the necessary conclusion. By these small token gestures I chose to broach the vast subject that remains unknowable. Death is indeed the spice of life -for without it life would have no meaning. It is necessary to give form, pacing and contrast to the good time of living.

Next to Rennes men’s prison, as next to almost all the prisons in France, there a Family Support Centre for the prisoners’ families. Visitors go there before and after a visit. They come back, every week, sometimes three times a week. They wait. It is a space of its own. Visiting is time consuming. They always arrive early. If they are a few seconds late, the door of the prison will remain closed. So they wait, to be sure to be on time, to be let in. The prison rules infringe upon this place, a passage between the outside and the inside, where all feelings are amplified: frustration, anger, hope, desire, fear, passion… To have the strength to go there, you must be so deeply rooted in life that you can breathe life into this inflated waiting time.This film is about life in that place. It is also an echo of what prison is made of. By choosing to remain exclusively «next door», the film paradoxically offers a direct approach of what the carceral reality is.