Merlin against Santa Claus (2003)

Strange Object

An archival investigation into the imperial image-making of the RAF ‘Z Unit’, which determined the destruction of human, animal and cultural life across Somaliland, as well as Africa and Asia.

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum

In late 19th century Tokyo, Kikunosuke Onoue, the adopted son of a legendary actor, himself an actor specializing in female roles, discovers that he is only praised for his acting due to his status as his father's heir. Devastated by this, he turns to Otoku, a servant of his family, for comfort, and they fall in love. Kikunosuke becomes determined to leave home and develop as an actor on his own merits, and Otoku faithfully follows him.

Alice

Alice Tate, mother of two, with a marriage of 16 years, finds herself falling for a handsome sax player, Joe. Stricken with a backache, she consults herbalist Dr. Yang, who realizes that her problems are not related to her back, but in her mind and heart. Dr. Yang's magical herbs give Alice wondrous powers, taking her out of her well-established rut.

Kuroneko

In the Sengoku period, a woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero to quell what is evidently an Onryō ghost. He encounters the two beautiful women in an eerie, beautiful scene. After spiritual purification, he meets the demon in a thrilling fight.

My Son

The story of a busy man, who fills his time travelling to Africa, South America and the Middle East. His passion for his job has distanced him from his loved ones. He’s been divorced for three years and has since seen his son very little. When the latter disappears, he is forced to stand still, and soon discovers things about his ex-wife and, above all, his son. A terrible feeling of guilt overwhelms him and he decides to find his son at all costs...

S.O.S.: Women to the Sea 2

Afraid her husband will fall back with his ex girlfriend after they're assigned to work together, Adriana and her sister set sail to the U.S. to go after him to stop this from happening.

Farewell Moscow

Plot unavailable

McCabe & Mrs. Miller

A gambler and a prostitute become thriving business partners in a remote Old West mining town until a large corporation arrives on the scene.

Zeitgeist: Addendum

Zeitgeist: Addendum premiered at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival. Director Peter Joseph stated: "The failure of our world to resolve the issues of war, poverty, and corruption, rests within a gross ignorance about what guides human behavior to begin with. It address the true source of the instability in our society, while offering the only fundamental, long-term solution."

Love at First Fight

Arnaud, facing an uncertain future and a dearth of choices in a small French coastal town, meets and falls for the apocalyptic-minded Madeleine, who joins an army boot camp to learn military and survival skills to prepare for the upcoming environmental collapse. Intrigued and excited by Madeleine’s wild ideas, Arnaud signs up for the boot camp himself. They soon realize that the boot camp is harder than they’d imagined, but the experience nonetheless cements them together as the couple continues to explore their young love.

Poetry

A South Korean woman in her sixties enrolls in a poetry class as she grapples with her faltering memory and her grandson's appalling wrongdoing.

Onibaba

While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

A playboy stages a dating show to earn his inheritance by granting his father's last wish: for his son to marry the most beautiful girl in the world.

Dheepan

Three war-torn strangers posing as a family flee Sri Lanka’s civil war to start over in a troubled Paris suburb, but their past traumas resurface as they struggle to survive in their new environment.

The Vagabond

A tramp tries to earn money by playing the violin, but he’s soon facing off against the jealous competition.

A Kid

Matthieu is a 33 year old Parisian who finds out that the father he never knew has died and decides to go to his funeral in order to meet his two siblings in Quebec. But once in Montréal, he realizes that nobody is aware of his existence or even interested in it. He is alone, in hostile territory…

Re-Elected

Friends battle former U.S. presidents when they come back from the dead as zombies on the Fourth of July.

Mabel's Strange Predicament

A tramp gets drunk in a hotel lobby and, upstairs, causes some misunderstandings between Mabel, two hotel guests across the hall from her room, and Mabel's visiting sweetheart.

The Man Who Would Be King

Tired of life as soldiers, Peachy Carnehan and Danny Dravot travel to the isolated land of Kafiristan, where they are ultimately embraced by the people and revered as rulers. After a series of misunderstandings, the natives come to believe that Dravot is a god, but he and Carnehan can't keep up their deception forever.

Timbuktu

Just outside of the Malian city of Timbuktu, now occupied by militant Islamic rebels who impose the Sharia on civilians and inconvenience their daily life, a cattleman kills a fisherman.

Don't Call Me Son

Pierre is seventeen and in the middle of puberty. He plays in a band, has sex at parties and secretly tries on women’s clothing and lipstick in front of a mirror. Ever since his father’s death, his mother Aracy has looked after him and his younger sister Jacqueline, spoiling them both. But when he discovers that she stole him from a hospital when he was a new born baby, Pierre’s life changes dramatically. In her new film, director Anna Muylaert explores the mother-child relationship through the eyes of a rebellious son whose whole world unravels overnight.

Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty

Part two of Leni Riefenstahl's monumental examination of the 1938 Olympic Games, the cameras leave the main stadium and venture into the many halls and fields deployed for such sports as fencing, polo, cycling, and the modern pentathlon, which was won by American Glenn Morris.

Final Portrait

Paris, 1964. The Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti, one of the most accomplished and respected artists of his generation, asks his friend, the American writer James Lord, to sit for a portrait, assuring him that it will take no longer than two or three hours, an afternoon at the most.

Boy Meets Girl

In Paris at night, a young aspiring filmmaker grapples with heartbreak after his girlfriend leaves him for his best friend. After a failed attempt to confront his friend, he wanders the streets and encounters a girl who has just been abandoned. Their paths cross at a party, bringing together two tormented souls.

House of Hummingbird

14-year-old Eun-hee moves through life like a hummingbird searching for a taste of sweetness wherever she may find it. Ignored by her parents and abused by her brother, she finds her escape by roaming the neighborhood with her best friend, going on adventures, and exploring young love.

Decalogue IV

A father and daughter, Michał and Anka, have a unique intimacy, which the college-aged Anka is beginning to feel conflicted about. When she finds an unopened letter from her deceased mother, it seems to justify her attraction to Michał, who may not in fact be her father.

Nights in Rodanthe

Adrienne is trying to decide whether to stay in her unhappy marriage or not, and her life changes when Paul, a doctor who is travelling to reconcile with his estranged son, checks into an inn where she is staying.

The Celluloid Closet

Exuberant, eye-opening movie that serves up a dazzling hundred-year history of the role of gay men and lesbians have had on the silver screen. Film contains fabulous footage from 120 films showing the changing face of cinema sexuality, from cruel stereotypes to covert love to the activist triumphs of the 1990s.

Happiness

A young husband and father, perfectly content with his life, falls in love with another woman.

New York Stories

Three tales of love, ambition, and neurosis unfold in the city that never sleeps. In "Life Lessons" (Martin Scorsese), a tormented painter channels heartbreak into his art. In "Life Without Zoë" (Francis Ford Coppola), a precocious 12-year-old navigates privilege and loneliness in a Manhattan hotel. And in "Oedipus Wrecks" (Woody Allen), a man’s domineering mother literally becomes a looming presence over New York.

The Color of Pomegranates

The life of the revered 18th-century Armenian poet and musician Sayat-Nova. Portraying events in the life of the artist from childhood up to his death, the movie addresses in particular his relationships with women, including his muse. The production tells Sayat-Nova's dramatic story by using both his poems and largely still camerawork, creating a work hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.

The Isle

Mute Hee-Jin is working as a clerk in a fishing resort in the Korean wilderness; selling baits, food and occasionally her body to the fishing tourists. One day she falls in love with Hyun-Shik, who is on the run from the police, and rescues him with a fish hook when he tries to commit suicide.

Dancing Quietly

After many dark years of depression Luca seeks to gain her high school diploma. Her little dog Mata helps her to find motivation and keep a positive attitude towards life...

Head Over Heels 2

Alice owns a network of sex shops and workaholic who, in trying to reconcile the harsh routine of work and family life, suffers nervous breakdown, she is forced by her husband to go to spa. Precisely at this time, appears unique opportunity to expand its business in New York. Using fun gimmicks, risks his health, leaves spa party there with family to ride, but actually in order to facilitate their professional interests. In trying to reconcile the agendas, engage in hilarious situations and mistakes that culminate in the possible separation of the couple.

The Wait

In the vast rooms of a beautiful Sicilian villa, Anna receives an unexpected guest. Twenty-something Jeanne has arrived from France, declaring herself to be the girlfriend of Anna’s son, Giuseppe, who has invited her to the house to spend Easter together. But this is news to Anna, and Guiseppe is not yet there...

On the Beach at Night Alone

A foreign city. The actress Younghee, stressed by a relationship with a married man in Korea, has given up everything, as the least courtesy she can show her sincere heart. He has said he'll join her, but she mistrusts him. She eats at an acquaintance's home and goes to a beach. She asks her friend, whom she thinks does not understand: "Is he missing me now, like I miss him?" Gangneung, Korea. A few old friends. Things are awkward, they drink, and she decides to startle them. She acts aloof, then cruel, but they like it. Left alone, Younghee goes to the beach, where things inside her heart manifest themselves, then fade like mist. How important is love in one’s life? Younghee wants to know.

Heaven Will Wait

Mélanie, 16 years old, lives with her mother. She likes going to school, her friends, playing the cello, and she wants to change the world. But when she meets a boy on the Internet and falls in love with him, her world changes as she is gradually recruited by Daesh. Sonia is 17 years old, and she almost did something irrevocable to “guarantee” her family a place in paradise. These teenage girls might be called Anaïs, Manon or Leila, and one day they all might go some way down the recruitment process. But can they ever come back from it?

Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden

Vienna, Austria, 1910. The young painter Egon Schiele is a rising artist, provocative and free, whose work, characterized by eroticism, shocks as much as it fascinates art lovers.

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried

Siegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, travels to Worms, capital of the Burgundian kingdom, to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Kriemhild.

The Santa and the Fox

It's Christmas time. The fox is starving and tries to kill the chickens in the henhouse. Animated short based on a book by Astrid Lindgren.

Asterix and Cleopatra

Popular animated hero Asterix and his faithful sidekick Obelix travel to ancient Egypt to help Cleopatra build a new summer home. Cleopatra and Julius Caesar have made a bet, with Caesar wagering the project cannot be completed in a few weeks time. With the help of a magic potion, Asterix comes to the rescue of the Queen of the Nile as Caesar and an angry architect plot against them.

Asterix and the Vikings

Asterix and Obelix have been given a tough mission: Transform the chief's lazy nephew Justforkix into a warrior. When the Vikings abduct him and bring him back to their homeland, Asterix and Obelix must travel to Norway to rescue Justforkix.

The Triplets of Belleville

When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters—an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire—to rescue him.

Asterix vs. Caesar

Obelix falls for a new arrival in his home village in Gaul, but is heartbroken when her true love arrives to visit her. However, the lovers are kidnapped by Romans; Asterix and Obelix set out to rescue them on a dangerous journey that will involve gladiators, slavers and beauracracy - and a personal encounter with the Emperor himself, Julius Caesar...

Asterix in Britain

One little ancient British village still holds out against the Roman invaders. Asterix and Obelix are invited to help. They must face fog, rain, warm beer and boiled boar with mint sauce, but they soon have Governor Encyclopaedius Britannicus's Romans declining and falling. Until a wild race for a barrel of magic potion lands them in the drink.

Asterix Conquers America

When marauding Romans capture - and catapult - their pal Getafix into lands unknown, the shrewd and cunning Asterix and his able sidekick Obelix spring into action! But their journey leads them to a strange and dangerous new world, where they must face a tribe of Indians, a stampeding herd of buffalo and a medicine man with designs on their magic potion!

The Twelve Tasks of Asterix

Asterix and Obelix depart on an adventure to complete twelve impossible tasks to prove to Caesar that they are as strong as the Gods. You'll roar with laughter as they outwit, outrun, and generally outrage the very people who are trying to prove them "only human".

Colocataires

Camille's life is ruled by the ring of the alarm clock each morning. Her well-ordered life consists of preparing her cat's meals, and hearing the familiar sound of the automatic till in the store where she works as the cashier. But one day, a man enters her home without her knowing and starts living there during the day while she's at work. Little by little, he will free her from her chains.

Solar Beats

Walking towards the fire. In a ceaseless stream of light, people, landscapes and objects lead us to mysterious regions. French filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski’s work is hard to classify - and all the richer for it. Together with his wife Michèle, whose musique concrète compositions form the basis of the sound design, Bokanowski offers a prolonged, dense and visually visceral experience of the kind that is rare in cinema today. Difficult to define and locate, its strangeness is quite unique.

Flammes

Memories split in the space.

Éclats d'Orphée

Film directed from the play "Orpheon", directed by François Tanguy, played by the Compagny of Raft.

Negative Space

Even though Sam's father is hardly ever home because he is often away on business trips, he is able to connect with his son by teaching him how to pack a suitcase.

The Man Who Slept

A young woman lives with her sleeping husband. Prisoner of her loneliness, she refuses to accept that this man is only a memory.

Persepolis

In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.

Midnight's Garden

The moon shines, a young couple plays in the forest. Their game leads them to an unfamiliar garden, in the middle of a clearing. Unaware of danger, the young lovers enter the maze of a garden at midnight. Little by little, they are submerged by a intoxicating spell. They lose themselves in the strange labyrinth. Will they manage to break the spell that keeps them prisoner?

The Barewolf

The werewolves that live in this secluded place are particularly savage: when not attacking anything that moves, they spend their time arguing and fighting. Driven by instinct, one young werewolf chases pink flamingos through the wild, straying far from home. Before he knows it, he’s in a place he knows nothing about: the world of humans.

Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds

Agnès, Juliette and Carmen's neighbour, writes children's storybooks that take place in a fantasy world, The Kingdom of the Winds. The intrepid sisters discover a passageway between their world and this extraordinary universe. Once on the other side, the girls take on the appearance of cats and discover Sirocco, a terrifying character who can control the wind.

The Magic Snowflake

A young boy named Nicholas is about to become the next Santa Claus, but must first avoid a crisis that's threatening the magic of Christmas before he can succeed in his new role.

The Illusionist

A French illusionist travels to Scotland to work. He meets a young woman in a small village. Their ensuing adventure in Edinburgh changes both their lives forever.

Clown and His Dogs

Short film of 300 individually painted images. A lost film.

Fantastic Planet

On the planet Ygam, the Draags, extremely technologically and spiritually advanced blue humanoids, consider the tiny Oms, human beings descendants of Terra's inhabitants, as ignorant animals. Those who live in slavery are treated as simple pets and used to entertain Draag children; those who live hidden in the hostile wilderness of the planet are periodically hunted and ruthlessly slaughtered as if they were vermin.

The Stolen Moon. KUM

Kozak Vasil with the children adjusts the Christmas star so that in the evening the children could congratulate the godparents with carols. Vasyl's wife, Katerina, is preparing festive dinner at the stove. Lonely, aloof from the community in the village lives the Kozak-Kharakternik Godfather.

Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest

Raised on tales of a Djinn fairy princess, Azur, a young Frenchman goes to North Africa in search of the sprite, only to discover that his close childhood friend, Asmar, an Arab youth whose mother raised both boys also seeks the genie.

Genius Loci

One night, Reine, a young loner, sees among the urban chaos a moving oneness that seems alive, like some sort of guide.

Raining Cats and Frogs

It's a catastrophe! A flood has hit our planet and an unusual group of people are all that remains. Led by Ferdinand, a modern day Noah, this little group have managed to defy the furiously raging elements. People and animals alike are dragged through this incredible whirlpool of an adventure.

Fierce

A young corporate executive is kidnapped from his apartment. He wakes up in the middle of a forest only to be stalked by a mysterious hunter.

Kirikou and the Sorceress

Drawn from elements of West African folk tales, it depicts how a newborn boy, Kirikou, saves his village from the evil witch Karaba.

Son Indochine

Plot unavailable

Asterix and the Big Fight

Due to an unfortunate accident involving Obelix throwing a menhir, Getafix the druid not only loses his memory, but goes completely mad. Now deprived of the wisdom of their beloved druid and the protection provided by his magic potion, the Armorican village falls prey to a proclaimed soothsayer who comes with ominous predictions and overweening ambitions. It's up to Asterix to keep his villager friends within reason and hopefully get Getafix to remember the magic potion's recipe before the impending Roman attack.

Kirikou and the Wild Beasts

Kirikou's Grandfather says that the story of Kirikou and The Witch was too short, so he proceeds to explain more about Kirikou's accomplishments. We find out how little boy became a gardener, a detective, a maker of pottery, a merchant, a traveler and a doctor.

Asterix the Gaul

In the year 50 BC, Gaul is occupied by the Romans - nearly. But the small village of Asterix and his friends still resists the Roman legions with the aid of their druid's magic potion, which gives superhuman strength. Learning of this potion, a Roman centurion kidnaps the druid to get the secret formula out of him.

Little Monkey

A young monkey, initiated by his master, will pass his transition to adulthood. He will have to fight fire, metaphor for his fear of growing up, by taming the sound of the sacred djembe, symbol of independence.

The Old Lady and the Pigeons

A starving gendarme, wasting away from hunger, is reduced to grabbing castoff snacks from fat American tourists. When he sees as old woman feeding pigeons, in desperation he hits on the bizarre idea of dressing up as one...

The Monk and the Fish

A plump and exuberant monk goes fishing, and a playful fish eludes him. First the monk uses a rod and reel, then a net; over and over, he ends up fish-less and wet. Sleepless, he tries luring the fish at night with a bank of candles. He tries a bow and arrow. The tireless and insouciant fish leads the monk through a viaduct, over irrigated steppes, across cisterns, down canals.

The Banquet of the Concubine

Delicately flirting with eroticism, the animated film The Banquet of the Concubine, by young Chinese director Hefang Wei, recounts one of the most famous love stories of Imperial China. In this tale of bitter jealousy, nothing can sweeten the heart of an abandoned mistress, not even the luscious lychee.

Mia and the Migoo

One night Mia has a premonition. So after saying a few words of parting at her mother’s grave, she sets out on a cross continent journey, though mountains and jungles in search of her father, who has been trapped in a landslide at a construction site on a remote tropical lake. In the middle of the lake stands the ancient Tree of Life, watched over by innocent, bumbling forest spirits called the Migoo, who grow and change shape as they please, morphing from small childlike beings to petulant giants. The Migoo have been disrupting the construction to protect this sacred site – and now together with Mia they join in a fight to find Mia’s father and save the Tree, with the future of life on Earth hanging in the balance.

Snow White: The Sequel

Prince Charming was supposed to live long and happily with Snow White after kissing her back to life. However the jealous 'good' fairy decides that she and the prince were meant to be, only the start of a whole series of perversions of various fairy tale characters' traditional good nature.

A Cat in Paris

A thrilling mystery that unfurls in the alleys and on the rooftops of the French capital, Paris, over the course of one adventurous evening.

L'indomptable

2018 short film by Patrick Bokanowski

Turning Table

On a winter night, the author of "The King and the Mockingbird" is visited by the cartoon characters he created in his studio. Along with a little clown, he screens a selection of his favorite shorts

The Cat's Regret

A ten-year-old boy who hates his little brother is punished by his mother and has to spend an afternoon with a scary old man. The boy will learn a lesson about life when he discovers the old man’s terrible secret.

Love, He Said

1973, San Francisco. Charles Bukowski, underground poet and punk ahead of his time, reads his poem Love to a wild audience who've come to see the pulp writer's provocative performance. But that day, instead of a punk they find a broken man hungry for love.

Funny Fish

Somewhere in the middle of the ocean, a school of fish comes to the rescue of a goldfish floating on the surface of the water. They vow to do everything they can to help it back into the water and breathe. What they don't know is that it's actually a balloon.

Incubala of Animation

A patchwork of the first animated movies from the collections of La Cinémathèque française : Stroboscopic Discs (1833), Zoetropes (since 1867), Reynaud's Praxinoscope (1878-1879), plates of Muybridge and Anschütz (1880-1890), an unseen Marey's chronophotography (1889), Chromolithographs films (since 1897), including one inspired by the second Georges Méliès' film, "Une séance de prestidigitation" (1896), with a photographic version, unseen until now.

5 Euros

33 internships at 33 years of age, and still no job! Thrown out by his dad, Jean-Claude finds himself on the street with only 5 Euros in his pocket. Will he put them to good use?

Phantom Boy

At a hospital in New York, Alex, a police officer, meets Leo, a boy who has the ability to get out of his body and pass through the walls like a ghost. Both team up with Mary, an intrepid journalist, to capture a disfigured villain who terrorizes the city.

Le Pont des Broignes

Transporting packets across the wooden bridges through gaseous swamps, sometimes stopping at La Touille for lunch : such is life of the Broignes. So long as they can keep it up.

The Hallway

A young couple finds themselves in difficult financial straits. The man is out of work and spends his days walking the streets, without so much as a cent in his pocket to buy food. He’s so weak that he collapses in front of a store window. The store’s owner, an elderly man, comes to the man’s aid and offers him a job. His new job requires him to spend all day sitting and keeping watch on the small room at the end of a corridor.

Neige

On the eve of summer vacation, Prune leaves her parents for the traditional "end-of-year school trip." But once she's gone, an incredible snowstorm hits the small town where her family lives. Philémon, her younger brother, then makes an astonishing discovery: an Inuit family has settled on a roundabout. The meeting of these two worlds sets the stage for a wonderful adventure.

Beauty of the Golden Wood

Plot unavailable

Asmahan the Diva

The life of Asmahan, the diva and druze princess was short, but what a life ! Marriages, glory, espionage, lovers, alcohol, poker, suicides, murders, scandals… This oriental Marilyn has marked the golden age of the egyptian musical comedies. Today, her voice still resonates everywhere in the Middle East and her mysterious death in the waters of the Nile still feeds the wildest rumors…

Vanille

Vanille is a little Parisian girl who has just arrived in Guadeloupe. She will be immersed in an exotic and mysterious adventure, meeting picturesque characters and magical flowers, all embellished with a touch of Creole. These holidays promise to be rich and full of surprises!

Pumpkins and Old Lace

The perfect "Granny or Grandpa" poster face is what the photographer from Discra, an adult diaper company, hopes to find as he approaches a retirement home, camera in hand. A quick look at a couple of "nice old folks" and that should be it. But it's just the beginning of the story (or rather stories). While the folks he meets are a bit long in the tooth, they have a lot to say. With Pumpkins and Old Lace, Juliette Loubières joins the classic tradition of puppet animation films, creating a sincere, whimsical fairy tale with a moral that reminds us that old age is sometimes a mask guarding the treasures of our souls.

My Grandpa Is Hiding

A grandfather explains to his grandson that he'll have to take care of his flower garden after he dies. There follows a touching and poetic discussion about losing loved ones and on the marks they leave behind.

Princes and Princesses

In this episodic animated fantasy from France, an art teacher interprets a series of six fairy tales (each involving a prince or princess) with the help of two precocious students. Princes and Princesses was created using a special style of cutout animation, with black silhouetted characters performing the action against backlit backdrops in striking colors.

The Mistress

In a castle at nightfall, a mysterious lady is waiting for a visitor…

Verte

Plot unavailable

Loulou

Plot unavailable

Tales of the Night

Six exotic fables, each unfold in a unique locale, from Tibet, to medieval Europe, an Aztec kingdom, the African plains, and even the Land of the Dead.

Two Friends

Two friends, a caterpillar and a tadpole, grow up in two different environments.

The Angel

The climbing of an immense staircase made up of the most varied stairs. Symbolic scenes occur on different levels where characters seem to be prisoners of their deeds and of their own folly. The steep staircase leads little by little towards the zones of great light where human beings and nonhuman beings meet.