Akerman has said that Sud acts as something of a counterpoint to her 1993 film D'Est, which dealt with a journey through Eastern Europe. But despite its title, Sud - ironically - heads west, an edgy documentary about the southern states of America, where racial tensions smoulder in the scorching summer sun.

Her interest in the area was sparked by literature from the Deep South, in particular the novels of William Faulkner and his tales of southern life. Another starting point was the murder of James Byrd, Jr, a black man who was lynched in Texas by three young white men, but Akerman is careful to point out that the story is not only about that. It is more, she says, "an evocation of how this event fits into a landscape and climate as much mental as physical." To do this, Akerman travelled to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia, where she found herself struck by the silence ("a deafening silence") and heavy air in most southern towns which reminded her of James Baldwin's musings on the subject.

Akerman's journey allowed her to visit a place and meet people that could give her an insight into some of the things that have occupied her mind as an artist for years. Akerman is fascinated by the contrasts in history between races, such as the fact that Europeans sometimes seem to have too much history while Americans don't have enough. She's also intrigued by the use and abuse of history, opining that murder and genocide are often perpetrated in the name of history or in the face of its absence. "In our day and age, more than ever, there's purification in the air," she notes.

The trip to Jasper, Texas provided an interesting microcosm of the world at large, and the director came away with a few of the answers she was looking for. Says Akerman, "I had a better understanding of what still obsesses me." Nancy Tartaglione