As If No Misfortune Had Occurred in the Night
Larissa SANSOUR, Soren LIND
- UK, Denmark
- 2022
- 21min
- 12 +
- DCP
- color/black and white
Asian premiere
Synopsis
As If No Misfortune Had Occurred in the Night is an art film featuring an Arabic-language opera on loss, mourning and inherited trauma. A single aria is performed by Palestinian soprano Nour Darwish. The aria is a new composition based on Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and the Palestinian traditional song Mashaal. The piece is presented in black and white as a three-screen projection, like an altar triptych.
Review
As If No Misfortune Had Occurred in the Night uses the juxtaposition of Arabian opera singer’s singing and three-channel monochrome videos projected on the back to convey the sorrow of a Palestinian mother who lost her daughter. Set to Gustav Mahler's ‘Songs on the Death of Children,' the aria serves as a narrative of catastrophe, flight, and migration. It explores the impact of traumatic memory on individual, collective, and national identity. The film juxtaposes violence causing horrible results in Palestine and the wider international community and massacres committed throughout the century starting with World War I. The harmony of music, performance, visual art, and image also arouses emotions.
Director
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Larissa SANSOUR
Larissa Sansour was born in 1973 in East Jerusalem, Palestine. Central to her work is the dialectics between myth and historical narrative. In her recent works, she uses science fiction to address social and political issues. Working mainly with film, Sansour also produces installations, photos and sculptures.
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Soren LIND
Soren Lind is a Danish author, artist and scriptwriter. His work is shown in museums, galleries and film festivals worldwide.