Experiencing Interruptions?

All the Bloom of Boyhood

A seductive young man poses on the beach. At once, he strikes up a dance. His movements gradually uncover an unsettling portrait of youth. Starring emerging dancer Bilal Alami Badissi and with creative direction by him and Paris-based visual artist João Delfim, this debut experimental short invites the spectator into a make-believe netherworld in which desire and eeriness come together by the sea.

  • João Delfim
    Director
  • Bilal Alami Badissi
    Director
  • João Delfim
    Writer
  • Bilal Alami Badissi
    Writer
  • João Delfim
    Producer
  • Bilal Alami Badissi
    Producer
  • Bilal Alami Badissi
    Key Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Bello Come Te
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Experimental, Video art, Video Dance
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes 13 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 23, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    France
  • Country of Filming:
    France
  • Language:
    Italian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - João Delfim, Bilal Alami Badissi

Based in Paris, João Delfim is a visual artist and art director originally from Porto, Portugal. After obtaining a Master’s degree in Printmaking, he went on to developing a series of self-publications, using traditional etching techniques to create handcrafted artist books and zines.
As an emerging art director, João has worked on several original art video projects, in which his passion for both moving image and graphic design come together to serve his progressive building of a baroque and bizarre visual universe of his own.

With a Master’s degree in geopolitics, and currently part of the Istres-based "Coline" intensive dance program, Bilal Alami Badissi is a politically active emerging French choreographer. He has collaborated several times with French and Swiss researchers in human sciences to help address issues raised within the scope of contemporary themes such as identity, gender, and freedom during events in which Science and Art come together. Thanks to his highly expressive movements, Bilal's dancing is characterized by its ability to awaken the imagination and arouse emotions during either real or virtual performances which are deeply embedded in the music he chooses.

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Director Statement

Creating "Bello Come Te" represented quite the journey. The idea of capturing a portrayal of youth through image fascinated Bilal and me. After several readings and discussion on Oscar Wilde’s "The Picture of Dorian Gray", we had this craving of re-imagining Dorian’s haunted portrait while transposing it into a contemporary setting.

In an era in which everyone’s own manufactured portrait is just one selfie away, this video essay felt like a cathartic commentary on the multiple mirrors and ever-morphing facets we each display of ourselves nowadays. It also serves as an homage to the homoerotic subtext heavily present in Wilde’s novel, it being, in my opinion, an undeniable element of what makes it still, to date, one of the most complex and fascinating masterpieces of literary history.

— João Delfim

The development of virtual space brings up confusion between our image and ourselves, whereas it embraces only a small portion of our existence. "Bello Come Te" is a reminder of this, drawing the spectator into a living portrait where oddness interferes. In "The Picture of Dorian Gray", the young man's dancing reveals how beauty fatefully escapes from him. But unlike Dorian Gray fighting against his transformations, the young man gives himself over it to become one with it.

Opening to a broader approach, our goal is to address a central question regarding the Queer community: how can we make ourselves visible and signify our opposition to oppressive norms without producing new ones that end up limiting us as well?

— Bilal Alami Badissi