“Ari”, interview with director Léonor Serraille

February 22, 2025

Léonor Serraille, director: “I was making this film to grasp something. It was a little like a treasure hunt”.

French director Léonor Serraille brings her third feature film, “Ari“, to the 75th Berlinale competition.

The film follows Ari, a 27-year-old student teacher who is lost and tries to find his way back on track wandering from friend to friend to talk, dialogue, understand.

He will eventually discover that the world surrounding him is struggling as much as he is.

Léonor Serraille admits that this film project came to her attention in a moment in which she was, like her protagonist, feeling lost, fragile, but with a great curiosity about others.

She says: “I was making this film to grasp something. It was a little like a treasure hunt”.

Serraille’s camera never leaves his actor Andranic Manet who, as a magnet, can either attract and fascinate and repulse.

Along the film we learn about Ari, his past, his present, his beliefs and struggles through his interactions with his friends and father.

Plot

Right in the middle of a school inspector’s visit, Ari, a 27-year-old student teacher, collapses. Angry with him for being a failure, his father kicks him out of the house. Emotionally raw, and alone in the city, Ari reluctantly forces himself to rekindle his relationships with old friends. As his memories of the previous months successively ebb and flow, Ari discovers that other people aren’t doing as well as he imagined, and that perhaps he has been sleepwalking through his own life.

Written by: Chiara Nicoletti

Guest

Léonor Serraille