"I Can’t Go Back to Yesterday” is an experimental cross-over music film, connected to the conceptual music album EASY ALICE. Both creations reflect on sovereignty, isolation, seclusion, schizophrenia, gender balance and the desire for detachment. It researches the encounter between the world of Kafka, Alice in Wonderland, PJ Harvey, Eminem and Nietzsche. The movie script is based on diverse interviews with iconic figures as David Bowie, Paolo Pasolini, Donald Trump, Prince, Grace Jones, Leonard Cohen and Roy Cohn.

Liesa Van der Aa

Liesa Van der Aa (BE) has been an active force in the Belgian art scene as a violinist, singer, composer and actress, for already more than 10 years. Van der Aa graduated in 2008 at the Conservatoire Antwerp. At the start of her career she made waves as an actress with acting mainly in the theatre circuit and gradually moving on to TV. Her work is always made and shown in a splintered multi/polyphonic/schizophrenic - disciplinary context, balancing on narrative and surreal structures where content, image and music are put into one frame. She worked or is currently working with international directors/art houses as deSingel International Art Campus, Toneelhuis, Kaaitheater, Handelsbeurs Concertzaal, M HKA, Concertgebouw Brugge, with contemporary ensembles as Ictus Ensemble Brussels, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop Berlin and theatre directors as Guy Cassiers and FC Bergman. Liesa always stayed active in the music world, and debuted in 2012 with her solo-album Troops, mixing her voice with sounds of the violin, adding sound effects and combining it all with a loop station to a bombastic and well-received end product. It earned her a nomination for Best Musician at the MIA’s in 2012. In 2014, she released her second album WOTH, a musical triptych based on the dead ceremony of the old Egyptian culture. Both projects came to live partly thanks to cult sound engineer Boris Wilsdorf (Berlin - Einsturzende Neubauten). Aside from her solo projects, Liesa Van der Aa simultaneously developed a new music ensemble, One Trick Pony, a contemporary music laboratory that researches the connection between music, image and art, focusing on the visualization of music and musicians, on stage, film and locations far outside the venue. As a combination of all her passions, composing music for film was a logical next step in her creative process. Gilles Coulier took her on board for all his short films, and their collaboration culminated in the 2017 feature film Cargo, which premiered at festivals such as Les Arcs European Film Festival, Göteborg Film Festival, London Film Festival, San Sebastián International Film Festival and Thessaloniki Film Festival among many others. In September 2018, her work for Cargo was awarded with an Ensor for Best Soundtrack. After her monumental Weighing of the Heart and the stimulating expression of the bustle of the city in Autobahn Utopia, Liesa presented her newest project last year with One Trick Pony, Court of Choice Part 1: Play, a crazy tennis match for three actors, percussion and string quartet. Always creating new sounds and music, she released her third solo album Easy Alice in February 2020 in collaboration with Niels Broos, Dries Laheye, Lander Gyselinck, Elisabeth De Loore, David Williamson and Baloji.

Awards & nominations: 2018: ENSOR Award Best Soundtrack @ Film Festival Ostend for Cargo

Upcoming projects: 2020: All the Pretty Little Horses, feature film by Michalis Konstantatos (selected for TorinoFilmlab)

I Can't Go Back to Yesterday