Malika Djardi

June 20, 2026, 13.00 h
June 21, 2026, 14.00 h

After the film premiere on June 20, there will be a talk titled "Dance, Health and Public Space – where can a body exist when language, memory, and self-determination disappear?"

We invite you to the premiere of Martyre – I Swear on My Mother’s Life, a documentary and choreographic project that follows Marie-Bernadette, 74, who lives with Alzheimer's in a care home and has almost completely lost her ability to speak. Yet her body begins to speak: through gestures, through movements — in dances that emerge after her diagnosis, despite never having practiced dance before. Her daughter, a choreographer, follows this unexpected expression and turns it into the starting point of a cinematic search. What begins as quiet movement within the care home pushes outward: into corridors, onto streets, into cafés and public spaces, her body reclaiming environments where it seemingly no longer belongs.

Following the screening on June 20, the film's director Malika Djardi will be joined by neuropsychologist Dr. Ramuné Dirvanskienė and Aerowaves Co-Director Roberto Casarotto for a conversation that opens outward from the film into larger questions about dance, care, brain health and public spaces. The discussion will explore how dance moves within the gaps of traditional healthcare, particularly in relation to conditions such as dementia and depression. They will explore what brings bodies into movement and expression, what frees them, and how spontaneous dance in public space can be an act of reclaiming presence and belonging.

Guest speakers: Malika Djardi (choreographer, director), Roberto Casarotto (Co-Director Aerowaves), Dr. Ramuné Dirvanskienė (Neuropsychologist Lithuanian University of Health)

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Sara Houston (Professor of Dance Studies and Community Engagement at University of Roehampton)