Babel Caucase

MARCHO DORYILA: 'May freedom walk with you!' Thanks to a scheme devised by the association Marcho Doryila and filmmaker Mylène Sauloy, a caravan of cultural solidarity, Babel Cause, made up of eight trucks from all four corners of France - including a theatre-on-wheels, a merry-go-round, kitchen trucks and a cinema - and around fifty artists in the largest sense of the word (chefs, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, trade unionists, acrobats, farmers...) hoping to link Paris to Grozny and to Caucasia. A 12 000 km journey... After several rich, warm stopovers in Georgia, the caravan learned that Russia refused, without giving a specific reason, to let it pass, although it had all the necessary papers. After having performed for Tchetchen refugees in Pankissi, it nonetheless went as far as the border, and in the face of a renewed refusal by the Russians, asked for a transit permit to Poland: which was also denied. Finally, the caravan headed back south, via the Black Sea, towards Warsaw to play to the refugees cooped up in 'camps' without any legal status or assistance. After six weeks on the road, the caravan finally returned to Paris for a final concert. www.babelcaucase.free.fr