EIFF 2014: Life May Be

Life May Be is a five part cinematic correspondence between Irish filmmaker Mark Cousins and Iranian filmmaker Mania Akbari, made over the last year, during which time the two UK-based filmmakers had no in-person contact. Essayistic but extremely intimate in nature, each filmed ‘letter' (three from Cousins, two from Akbari) delves into themes relevant to their personal and creative lives (e.g. exile, representation, how we approach the body), becoming more complex as each letter responds to the former and spirals off in new directions.

Cousins, in his second contribution, says, “Take away the physical and you get something a bit more metaphysical,” and Life May Be eventually diverts away from a narrated approach into a wordless, haunting exploration of the sublime in which the individual actually becomes invisible in their discussion of the nature of identity. Akbari, in the film's most moving segment, posits, “My body is my country and it's constantly changing,” and the very form of this bold collaboration seems influenced by that notion in its own way.