Words are configured through rhythms, voice tones and, above all, situations. They often carry the physical memory of an encounter. How do moving image works conceive language, and how do they invite us to tune in to its formation and ability to produce meaning?

In Arrival, Denis Villeneuve's 2016 science-fiction film, a linguist finds herself on a mission to understand aliens' intentions through a palindromic language made up of ink circular symbols. Noticing that her relationship to time is modified, our own perception of cinematic language becomes altered. What happens in the image when it embodies a singular look at languages and allows us to reflect on the worlds they are conjuring?

Although mise en langue and subtitling practices have received little attention in film studies, they find their particular resonance in this edition of aashra. This program explores attempts to listen to speech acts through the eyes of film (Jennifer Verraes). It considers how artistic practices make us hear a language whose codification seems to have disappeared through its faded images or sounds; how film conceives voices and their articulation as "cobblestones thrown at the camera" (Eugenio Renzi) echoed by editing or subtitling practices; and how it engages us in listening to alternate spelling as a modality of meaning-making.

Anaïs Farine is a researcher in cinema studies and a film curator. Her writings have been published in Kohl, Cinematheque Beirut, Trouble dans les collections, Ettijahat, Débordements, The Funambulist Magazine, Africultures, and Aniki, among others. She is a member of the organizing committee of the Festival Ciné-Palestine (Paris).