Artemio Benki: Solo
This text is written by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, directors of the Magnificent7 Festival in Belgrade.
A documentary that tells an equally exciting story about the colorful world and the music that fills and transforms it.
A poignant drama about a hero torn between his extraordinary talent and the dark abyss of mental illness. Discreet, simply recorded scenes of a psychiatric institution and urban spaces without splendor, scenes that are always on the verge of drama, reveal an unusual, charismatic hero in a constant struggle for dignity and preservation of his precious ability to express himself artistically. His contacts with other patients of the psychiatric clinic, or admirers of his virtuoso playing of the piano, reveal complex layers of a person in states of agitation or rare moments of calm. From restraint to victory and vice versa, we follow a story told without prejudice and with the deepest empathy that expands our understanding of the human psyche and condition.
Collisions of existential anguish with music that ennobles and liberates.
Czech Republic, France, Argentina, Austria 2019, 84 minutes
