Ouroboros

 


foto

Basma Alsharif

FR / PS / BE / QA 2017
77 min – Arab, English
German Premiere

DOP: Ben Russell – E: Basma Alsharif
S: Federico Chiari – M: Yann
Gourdon – P+Sales: momento-films
With Diego Marcon, Neemah Abu Ghenas, Jessica Bellinger,
Coleman Collins

           


 


The film moves through seven discrete segments, all but the last titled
with a time of day: a prologue (dawn) and epilogue (dawn) set in
Palestine; four chapters following a nameless man (played by Italian
artist and filmmaker Diego Marcon) from Los Angeles (noon) through
Matera in Southern Italy (dusk); the California desert (twice named:
night, briefly, then dusk again); a sprawling Breton chateau (noon);
and finally a musical coda à la Claire Denis’ BEAU TRAVAIL (1999),
which both condenses and explodes everything that came before it.
Palestine is both here, onscreen, as occupied land and in these other
spaces, each of which draws out some array of concerns regarding
the idea of Palestine. (Phil Coldiron, Cinema-Scope)

I wanted to play with sound and language through the collective
telling of a fictional love story set in a Middle East devoid of political
context. It was meant to be an experiment with details alluding to sites,
histories, and factual characteristics describing various regions of the
Levant, vaguely weaving in religious narratives. (Basma Alsharif). 

sunday 8 oct 8.30 pm werkstattkino


Basma Alsharif   * in 1983 in Kuwait of Palestinian origins, Basma Alsharif is an artist and filmmaker working between cinema and installation. She directed several short films including Everywhere Was The Same (2007), Home Movies Gaza (2013) and A Field Guide to Ferns (2015). Ouroboros is her first feature film.
basmalsharif.com

Films   Home Movies Gaza 2013 – O, Persecuted 2014 – A Field Guide To Ferns 2015