Orlando — dir. Sally Potter, France/ Netherlands/ Russia/ UK/ Italy 1992, 93'

Arthous's avant-garde and timeless tale of the search for identity and journey through the ages starring Oscar winner Tilda Swinton returns to the big screen.

Orlando, directed by Sally Potter, is a film adaptation of Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel and a love letter to freedom and defiance. Showered with awards rain, the film captivates visually and formally, and Tilda Swinton skillfully shortens the distance with viewers by tearing down the so-called “fourth wall” and direct commentary on camera.

Possessing the gift of eternal youth from the court of Elizabeth I, Orlando travels through four centuries of British history, changing not only costumes, but also gender. Tilda Swinton is partnered on screen with Billy Zane, and the role of Queen Elizabeth I was played by British actor and writer, LGBT icon, then 84, Quentin Crisp. Orlando is full of surprises, ambiguities and unobvious solutions. It is not surprising that the film received recognition at the Venice Film Festival, the European Film Award, the BAFTA award and was nominated for an Oscar for set design and costumes. The visual imagination of four-time Oscar winner Sandy Powell deserves great recognition, as the costumes not only place the story in time, but also complement the character's character, sometimes in a historical and sometimes campy way.

Irony and distance are mixed with the poeticism and timeliness of the message coming from Virginia Woolf, who has died for 85 years. The film is a multifaceted poem about being oneself devoid of tenderness or exaltation, but equipped with disinvolution and humor. The story itself “rhymes” with androgynous beauty, but also with the biography of the excellent Tilda Swinton. Orlando acts in spite of the years since its release, just like a timeless literary prototype, Swinton's employment and the very plot of the novel, which has become a prediction that the film is doomed to longevity like the titular Orlando... whether in a corset or a suit.