Al-Akrab (The Scorpion) is an ode to the opening scene of Luis Bunuel’s L’Âge d’or, from 1930. Photographer and documentary filmmaker Tobias Zielony (DE) places four young women – high school students in a Palestinian village – close to each other in a darkened room. Their white head coverings and dresses give off a blue sheen in the black light.
It is not immediately clear where they are. A disco? A laboratory? A hospital? They are busily preoccupied with a scorpion. Alive or dead, they move it, shift it and photograph the fascinating little creature. The results of their actions (an animation film about a scorpion being brought to life) plays like a mise en abyme through the ending of Zielony’s video.
Thanks to minuscule emotions, subtle eroticism and fluorescent mysticism, this surreal work is dominated by a laden atmosphere.
DE, 2014, 4:52 min
Cast:
Kareema Awad-Alla Ibtisam Imad Ashwaq Thaher
Ruba Zuhri
Hiba Hashim
Concept, Direction, Camera: Tobias Zielony
Dramaturgical Advice: Janina Herhoffer
Sound Editing: Thomas Wallmann
Supported by KOW Berlin Gallery
► On Wednesday March 30th at 8 pm, we organise a collective viewing moment. We introduce the film and provide food. Feet under the table, eyes on the screen.
Limited capacity.
Reservation recommended.
