Behind this strange title lies a story of enigmas – little sketches put together, oddities that sublimate the banal to get closer to the splendour of life. Lionel Dray borrowed this phrase from Kafka, which dictates the writing of his Ainsi la Bagarre, featuring a transposition of short stories and episodes from the life of the Prague-based writer into aphorisms. Set to a score inspired by the third movement of Shostakovich’s 8th symphony, masterful in its tension, anguish and bursts of joy, it takes its character on a journey through absurd tableaux full of snags that he avoids with a Tati-like wiggle or with impassive Keaton-like acrobatics. Here and there, odes to Chris Marker or Dali that you’ll recognise or guess, divert your thoughts towards an unexpected gem… You’ll laugh, you’ll be afraid, you’ll be lost. Ainsi la Bagarre guides you in the footsteps of Kafka with a tightrope walker spirit that knows no path, very precisely beside reality, to the right of the anonymous, to the left of the invisible, in the hidden side of the banal, where it shines.