Echoes across two cities at AU BOUT LÀ-BAS (THÉÂTRE)

In 1935, Shen Bai, a painter from Shanghai, and Éloïse, a free-spirited poet in Paris, create a sanctuary of the mind through letters and paintings, connecting two distant cities as the world descends into war. When the outbreak of the Second World War cuts off all communication, both women independently make the same decision: to cross a world at war and journey to each other’s city. Their ships pass one another in the Indian Ocean, yet never meet, separated by fog and fate. Before departing, each buries half of a blue-and-white porcelain butterfly perfume bottle in the harbour of departure—a tangible trace of her existence, hope, and devotion.

More than eighty years later, Shen Qingyuan, a marine archaeologist, uncovers one half of the perfume bottle during an excavation on Shanghai’s Bund. At almost the same time in Paris, archivist Léa discovers the matching half while cataloguing historical archives. Reunited at last, the two fragments reveal a story sealed by war and time, drawing the two contemporary researchers into a journey across history that compels them to confront the spiritual dilemmas of their own age.