Jacques Derrida whispers poetry over a Spanish water basin for 29 hypnotic minutes. You in?
In the city of Nijar in Spain, the balsa of Isabel Esteva is a place in the open air where waters are collected to irrigate the land. Safaa Fathy filmed the reflections of the sky on the liquid surface at the pace of one second every half-hour, from morning to evening every day. Time passes and leaves its mark on fixed shots. The voice of Jacques Derrida reads a poem written by Safaa Fathy, translated from the Arabic by Zeinad Zaza and Derrida himself. Between sound and image, interior and exterior, this film invites us to travel in the density of time.
Direction
Safaa Fathy's radical patience—half-hour intervals as method.
Sound
Derrida's voice: philosophy as pure texture, not argument.
Director
Safaa Fathy
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Fathy and Derrida collaborated across the philosopher's final years; this film exists at the intersection of their friendship and his death in 2004.
"Nom à la mer" puns on 'name to the sea' and 'no to the sea' in French—Derrida's playful multilingualism bleeding into the title itself.
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