THE UNDERGROUND ORCHESTRA

A glorious documentary profile of musicians who play on the sidewalks of Paris and in the Metro. Filmmaker Heddy Honigmann (whose film FOREVER, on the Pere Lachaise cemetery, was shown at THE 222 in the fall of 2021), illuminates the lives and music of a ragtag group of international bohemians: an Argentine pianist, Romanian father and son violinists, a Venezuelan harpist, and singers from Mali and Vietnam. All are united by their experiences with political repression and by the luminosity of spirit and boundless courage that led them to flee horrendous situations throughout the world. As they find refuge in Paris, music becomes their economic lifeline, but as this film makes clear, music also becomes a shining metaphor for their will to survive. (1998, 108 min., in French w/English subtitles)