Private Project

The lost years

The lost years is a documented walk through the mountains of Alpi Orobie, in Bergamo, Italy. The appearance of a new character during the low tourist season, when foreigners are rarely seen, opens certain questions about the territory itself and the inhabitants and visitors of the mountains.

The lost years is a speculative dance-documentary piece that was filmed in its entirety on a 5-day walk from the Seriana Valley to the Brembana Valley, crossing the natural park of Orobbie Bergamasche. Using the strategies of self-fiction, we documented the valley through a character that is in search of answers but doesn’t pose any questions. During the walk, we gathered perspectives on the different ways in which the walkers understood the mountain. Through a conversation with a regular walker, the lost years reflects on the relationship between the human and the non-human, specifically with the mountain, as a material entity and as an idea. The anonymous walker comes back to it as a source of ancestral information.

The lost years reflects on the end and decadence of modernity and anthropocentrism, the years when humanity was plunged into political hopelessness, but which were necessary to land in the new planetary paradigm proposed by posthumanism. A melancholic time, where humanity had to walk through the fog, nourish itself on the visions of possible futures, and rescue perspectives that would make the transition possible.

  • Marcos Zoe Nacar
    Director
  • Marcos Zoe Nacar
    Producer
  • Marcos Zoe Nacar
    Key Cast
  • Lucas Naranjo
    Writer
    DOP/Camera
  • Roze Paars
    Writer
    Costume
  • Matilde Bassetti
    Writer
    Styling
  • José Jiménez
    Writer
    Graphic design
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Genres:
    Speculative documentary
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 22 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 15, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Language:
    Italian
  • Shooting Format:
    4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Detmold International short film festival
    Detmold
    Germany
    August 26, 2023
    World Premiere
Director Biography - Marcos Zoe Nacar

Marcos Nacar is a Catalan dance, video, and performance artist, and independent researcher based in Berlin. He works with movement, text, and video as his main tools, creating also installations on some occasions. He has a background in more theoretical disciplines such as law and philosophy.

He is influenced by post-humanist perspectives, and therefore interested in the relation of our species with the landscape; in non-human forms of life, and in collective and intergenerational processes. In the last two years, his individual work has pivoted around exploring dance and performance as a documentary medium. Taking as a reference the literature genre of self-fiction, he works on generating scenarios where facts and fiction cross in order to explore a specific topic.

In 2021 he received the initial förderung from Akademie der Künste to support his artistic research (I don’t know Carmen). The work has also been recently selected for a one-month residency in the frame of the residency program “Made in Berlin”, Lake Studios, Berlin. Nacar just ended his first solo video project: The lost years. He has presented his own work and performed for other choreographers in venues and festivals such as Kulturhaus Bethanien, Maxim Gorki Theater, Schwere Reiter, Kunstencentrum BUDA, M - Museum Leuven, and Festival la Merçe.

In 2019 founded together with Matilde Bassetti the collective Nomellores, creating three performative and installative works that have been presented in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic.

He is part of the collective inaninstant, a dance and poetry improvisation group that has performed more than 20 times in different contexts in Berlin, including Performing arts festival.

He is a founder member and writer on “Zinecolectivo”. Magazine and artists collective based in Berlin, since 2018 Zine, organizes cultural events and publications for the Spanish-speaking community of Berlin.

From 2015 until 2018 he worked as a performer for the social theater company, Impactat teatre, following the work of Augusto Boalt, theater of the oppressed.

He has worked as a law consultant for the foundation Ambit prevenció, Barcelona, offering legal support to sex workers and in the law firm Elna Advocades, Barcelona, dealing with cases of family law and penal law (specifically gender violence).

He holds a bachelor in law from the University of Barcelona, focusing on the philosophy of law, bioethics, and gender studies. He attended the dance programs Dance Intensive at Tanzfabrik, Berlin, and Inside movement at Tragant dansa, Barcelona.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Through my work, I explore dance and performance as documentary media. Taking as a reference the literature genre of self-fiction, I use dance, performance, video, and poetry to generate scenarios where facts and fiction cross, in order to deepen into the topics I am drawn to.

I have produced several site-specific creations dealing with the relation of body and landscape, opening spaces of reflection around the territory. I founded in 2019, together with Matilde Bassetti the collective Nomellores, in order to deepen into these topics.

I am influenced by post-humanist perspectives, and therefore interested in the relation of our species with the landscape; in non-human forms of life, and in exploring states of presence and absence and their translation to dance and performance.

As an artist I follow different lines of research that generate theoretical speculations, somatic practices, and performative devices. My main interests revolve around The human-landscape relationship; The states of presence and absence and their translation to dance and performance; and the exploration of dance and performance as documentary media.