Tú me abrasas (You Burn Me)

Through films such as Viola (FFG2013) and Hermia & Helena (FFG2016), Argentine Matías Piñeiro explored the works of William Shakespeare in a modern and original way. For Tú me abrasas, he turned to the ancient Greeks. In this free adaptation of a chapter from the book Conversations with Leuco by Italian writer Cesare Pavese, Piñeiro depicts a conversation between the poetess Sappho and the nymph Britomartis about (unrequited) love and death. They meet by the sea, where, according to Britomartis, everything dies and comes back to life, and discover their opposite desires. Pavese's unhappy ghost hangs over the mythical characters' story, canned with a corny Bolex 16mm camera. Piñeiro interweaves words and images into associative stanzas in a visual poem, lyrical like Sappho's poetry, about the bittersweet nature of burning desire.