In her first feature-length film, artist Basma Alsharif ambitiously expands her exploration of the individual in relation to political history and collective memory. The basis for the film is the concept of the Eternal Return, carried in the film’s title: Ouroboros, the symbol of the snake eating its own tail.
The film is an homage to the Gaza Strip as a place where civilisation has begun to end and where a new beginning emerges, for better or for worse. It weaves together disparate landscapes, peoples, and histories, unveiling an endless cycle of destruction and renewal, doomed to repeat itself as the process of forgetting seems to be the only way to move forward.
Ouroboros by Basma Alsharif, 2017, France/Palestine/Belgium/Quatar
77 min. / Italian, English and Chinook w/ English subtitles
Ouroboros features fellow artist Diego Marcon as the wandering protagonist, a voice over by Sky Hopinka, sound + music by Federico Chiari & Yann Gourdon, and exquisite 16mm camerawork by filmmaker Ben Russell. It premiered last year at the Locarno Film Festival and was screened at the Whitney Biennal in New York, Underdox in München, and at the BFI London Film Festival. This AWL screening in WORM will be the Dutch premiere.
AWL_023 OUROBOROS
wednesday 28 march
doors open: 20.15
start program: 20.30
pre sale tickets: WORM
address: Boomgaardsstraat 71, Rotterdam