Traverse is a docu-fiction feature film by May Dugast, for which I am director of photography. The film combines documentary authenticity with poetic and magical elements and tells the story of the

encounter between three characters on the outskirts of Berlin: an undertaker, a tango musician

and a 90-year-old woman. Between the morgue and the dance hall, death is treated as a transition – with empathy, humour and a surreal tone.

Since December 2024, we have been shooting in stages, with improvised scenes, professional

and amateur actors and real locations. The camera moves in the same handheld style used in documentaries and fiction films, visually seeking for connections between the warm world of tango and the cool funeral parlours – through compositions, rhythms and cuts. The visual bracket gives both worlds an equal presence. The camera is intended to immerse us in what connects both spheres: life – and its inevitable end. We will all die.