Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse (The Gleaners and I)

Followed by a talk with Narges Kalhor moderated by Konstantin Bock

Far removed from visible society, they still exist—the collectors of leftovers. In the fields, they bend down to pick up potatoes that have been left behind; in the cities, they rummage through the waste of consumer society. They live off what others carelessly leave behind. With a keen eye, Agnès Varda leads us into a world beyond economic exploitation. She herself becomes a collector: of images, stories and encounters with people—among them winegrowers, artists, or those without secure housing. The result is Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse (The Gleaners and I), a poetic film about losing, finding and the value of discarded things.

Narges Kalhor says of Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse:
“Varda struggled for years to secure funding and initially failed to convince television stations and French film companies of the film's merits. Out of necessity, she started shooting with a mini DV camera, feeling the urge to simply start. The outdated aesthetics uniquely capture an essayistic narrative in a deliberate and highly artistic manner. For me, Varda is one of the most important female filmmakers in a very male-dominated field; she forges her own path in her own style. Les Glaneurs inspired many to use digital cameras and minimal staging.”

Narges Kalhor was born in 1984 in Tehran, Iran. She studied directing and visual communication. In 2009, she applied for political asylum in Germany while in the country for a festival. Her graduation film In the Name of Scheherazade premiered at the Visions du Réel festival in Nyon and was awarded the Goethe Institut’s prize for best documentary film at DOK Leipzig.