The goddess Mari decides to have the Devil be in the position of tutoring her twin sons, the titulars Atarrabi and Mikelats. Who better than him to prepare them for the world? The brothers grow up to become very different people: Atarrabi, solemn and curious, feels the world outside calling for him; Mikelats prefers to embrace a life of fun with his demon friends. In this modernized version of a Basque myth, sincerity and satire go hand in hand.
Once upon a time, Atarrabi and Mikelats, two twin brothers, children of the goddess Mari, and raised by the Devil. This Basque legend gives its name to the new film by Eugène Green, which invites us to a mythological episode but with a twist. In Green’s version, the Devil wears fashionable clothes, has a cocktail bar in his cave, and surveillance cameras to control his protégés. One day, one of them chooses the light, the other chooses the shadow. And from the contrast of their destinations, we observe their parallel growth adventures. It could be a pagan coming-of-age, but the Bressonian bodies of Atarrabi and Mikelats take this moral tale to the place of ambivalence between good and evil. Humorous and premonitory, Green composes absurd and magical scenes about love rituals, the search for soul salvation, and in particular, the search for a very special shadow. (Inês Lima Torres)
Director's Bio
Eugène Green was born in New York in 1947 and settled in France in 1969. In 1977 he created the theater company Le Théâtre de la Sapience. In 1999, he directed Every Night, and since then his films were shown at such festivals as Cannes, Berlin, Locarno and London, among others.
