Fire of time

Urban development in Barcelona has all but destroyed the once vibrant Barrio Chino where the nights were days and the days were long. This is an evocative film shot through windows, on street corners and in small rooms. People, clouds, and the swift tail lights of cars glide past and through, as fleeting traces of the passage of time. And as this one working-class Red Light district is transformed and changed by the process of gentrification, the former residents appear as ghosts, their prescence - as graffiti, as shadows - a reminder of the real history of the city. Larger forces cause buildings and neighbourhoods to vanish but they are rebuilt again in memories, worn photographs and in light. Adam Cohen’s handling of light gives people the substance of phantoms and their passages through the half deserted streets evoke Eliot, Proust, and Chris Marker. Sounds of this world are orchestrated with cello, organ and guitar to form a profoundly beautiful work about memory, longing and loss.