Light Thereafter

Pavel ends his odyssey empty-handed and naked as the day he was born. This is where Light Thereafter begins. The title suggests that this in fact is where things really begin for him too, but the film goes back in time, passing the various stages on the journey Pavel has made. Through eight chapters we get to know Pavel – a lonely Bulgarian-British teenage boy with autistic tendencies, a deep love of painting and an obsession with and boundless adoration for the French painter Arnaud. This adoration gets him into his idol's studio, where in the first chapter Arnaud very clearly disabuses Pavel of his dream. We then find out how Pavel got there, who crossed his path along the way, what he took with him and what he left behind. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)