Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman, whose film Je Tu Il Elle was screened at PFA last month, here explores relationships between mother and daughter, and Old and New Worlds using a deceptively simple structure. Shots of the streets of New York are accompanied by a voice-over reading of letters written to Akerman by her mother. Absence and presence are contrasted, and onto the impersonal urban backdrop we project a family drama. In an interview in Cahiers du Cinema, Akerman describes her film: "I lived (in New York) the first time for a year and a half, and during this whole time I was getting letters from my mother. In relation to what I was experiencing, in relation to New York, it was very moving. Like a kind of amorous-complaint, repetitive, always accompanying me. For my mother who is from old Europe, America is still the myth of the new America. The film seems to me to be very European.... It's a film about being off-center, and this shows up in the construction of the film. Generally speaking, but not systematically, the film is composed of shots in the subway and of exteriors. And you never know where you are, never. The same construction shows up on the level of sounds...It's like a love song that you listen to or don't listen to, and at the same time it's like a hold that is slipping...."