N recounts the story of the Frenchman Raymond Borremans, who left Europe for Africa in the mid-20th-century. He devoted his life to the creation of the first encyclopaedia of this other world, dreaming of eternal recognition. He died, however, having only reached the letter N. With his encyclopaedia incomplete, his restless spirit drifts around West Africa, caught between life and death, past and present. This is the story of how he tries to complete his unfinished task from beyond death. N is both visually and musically a truly striking film. It is a multi-layered audio-visual symphony of great narrative richness. Hovering between dream and reality, this magical film plays on the confrontation between the Western mind and African spirituality.
1981