In the ruins, time stands still
廃墟では、時が止まったまま
間 The Silence Between
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The film
A man born after the end wanders through the ruins of a civilisation he never knew. In an abandoned school he finds a sketchbook. It becomes his only map and conversation with the past.
No green screen, filmed on location. The danger is real.
Sixth feature film by Felipe Carrelli, and the last. No dialogue: only music and the sound of the places. Filmed alone in abandoned places in five countries (Japan, Korea, China, Brazil and Italy), with the director as the only crew member and the only actor. The audience discovers each place together with the character, who has no way of knowing what any of it was for.
(ma) is a Japanese word with no exact translation: the pause, the silence, the empty space between things that gives them meaning. In music it is the rest between notes; in architecture, the empty room; in conversation, what is left unsaid. A film without words, made of empty places, lives in that space.
I
The end of a civilisation
Shown in the images: the ruins themselves.
II
The end of a journey
The last page of the sketchbook.
III
The end of a career
The last film by its maker, premiered in one of its own ruins.
The locations
Every page is a real ruin
The map
Japan, end to end
From Hokkaido to Kyūshū. Each dot is an area, not an exact location.
Production in numbers
One person film
From the itineraries of the four trips in Japan. Scheduled times, with a few return legs and walks estimated; the distance is a rough route estimate. Korea, China, Brazil and Italy are not included: these figures are Japan alone.
One day
14 October 2024
Out of the door at 06:00. Back at 23:16. Five hours at the power plant, more than seven and a half hours on trains and buses to get there and back.
In the backpack: camera, lenses, flashlight, sound recorder, microphone. In the second bag: helmet, jacket, gloves, leg guards, mask, canteen, tripod, raincoat, ropes, a wooden idol, a key, two drawings and a pocketknife.
Eighteen shots in three hours, ten minutes per shot, alone. Then two hours photographing the hall from every angle to rebuild it in 3D. Then the river again, before the light was gone.
The voice
- In the ruins, time stands still.
- Decay is time making poetry.
- Time capsules from a lost world.
- Abandoned by people. Taken back by nature.
- I take only what I need, and only what I can carry.
- At the edge of every ruin, fear and reason argue. I always let fear have the final word.
- This is not a film. It is a letter. A letter to the end of the world.
- Once we are gone, cats will own the place. That is an encouraging thought.
From the director’s diary and notes, 2023–2024
The posters
Three ruins, three lines
Soundtrack
The original score
Premiere
12.11.2026
Premiered in one of its own ruins, and released on YouTube the same day.