In his finely crafted yet dynamic way, Olivier Assayas closely follows the process of creation of “Eldorado”, choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj and based on a Karl Heinz Stockhausen composition “Sonntags Abschied”. The French film director, for whom the direction of actors is a choreography of camera and players, was provoked by the challenge that the choreographer put to him. The film illuminates the resonances between music and movement to record the jolts, confrontations but also the exchanges, the extension of sound in gesture, the abstract echoes. Olivier Assayas lifts the veil on the secrets of the work’s gestation, his filmmaker’s eye seeking out the moments of joy and anxiety in this ambitious dance piece.
The film includes a meeting between Preljocaj and Karl Heinz Stockhausen; the last filmed images of the composer at work. Stockhausen invited Preljocaj to listen to his new recording and to choreograph a dance piece based on it and with moving generosity Stockhausen gives insight into his work.