Film | #5 Die Wüste erforschen
Al-Houbut/The Landing | Al habil/The Rope
D: Akram Zaatari, Lebanon / United Arab Emirates 2019, 63 min, OV no dialogue | D: Ibrahim Shaddad, Sudan 1985, 33 min, OV no dialogue
Al-Houbut / The Landing
D: Akram Zaatari, Lebanon / United Arab Emirates 2019, 63 min, OV no dialogue
The film takes place in Shaabiyat al Ghurayfah, a public housing project in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates built in the eighties to provide descendants of the Ketbi Bedouins with their first concrete homes. This site, now totally deserted, witnessed the first move of Bedouin families from tents into modern designed habitations. The film unfolds as a repertoire of simple gestures, a few of which are inspired by the photographic documentation of performances by Hassan Sharif, playfully engaging with architecture, vegetation, space, movement, threshold, surveillance, and perspective.
Al Habil / The Rope
D: Ibrahim Shaddad, Sudan 1985, 33 min, OV no dialogue
Al Habil documents two blind men making their way through the desert accompanied by a donkey. Connected by a rope, sometimes the two men decide the way, and sometimes the donkey leads them through the desert.