Page 77 - Metro

FOCUS ON ASIA AND
THE MIDDLE EAST

At the beginning of 3GD "G@KKDMFD (2016), Yuri Ancarani’s But it’s all real. This towering obelisk, though unex
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KDUG FXW IURP WKH RSHQLQJ FUHGLWV WR D VWULNLQJ SX]]OLQJ it’s one of a quartet of steel plates standing in the sands
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stands a towering black rectangle, looming in the mid WHULRXV REMHFW RYHU PHWUHV WDOO DV SDUW RI D ZRUN FDOOHG
2
dle of the frame, in the middle of the desert. It’s a visual – notably, here – $@RS 6DRS 6DRS $@RS. The eerie vistas
evocation of the monolith from 2O@BD .CXRRDX may look like footage brought back from the surface of
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on the back foot. What is this shape? Is it real or a visual limestone outcrops, the lifeless sands and the rustling
effect? What is its purpose, narratively speaking? And EUHH]HV DUH RI WKLV ZRUOG LI \RX ORRN FDUHIXOO\ \RX FDQ
what’s it doing in what’s supposed to be a documentary? make out telephone poles.
o, FRXOG HYHQ WHOO \RX WKDW WKH ZKROH ĺOP LV VWDJHG DQG And the characters herein – the guy who drives a
that the people you see are actors,’ Ancarani has said, /DPERUJKLQL ZLWK D SHW FKHHWDK LQ WKH SDVVHQJHU VHDW
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playfully. The men we see on screen, ridiculously wealthy WKH PRWRUF\FOH JDQJ OHDGHU ZKR ULGHV D NDUDW JROG
Arab sheikhs with lives of unimaginable luxury and leisure, +DUOH\ 'DYLGVRQ WKH IDOFRQHU ZKR ĻLHV KLV FRPSHWLQJ
BNTKC EH DFWRUV EHKLQG WKHLU FGTSQ@s and white robes, at ELUGV LQ D SULYDWH MHW WKH PRWRUKHDG ZKRVH VRXSHG XS
least, they’re all interchangeable. The grand vistas of the IRXU ZKHHO GULYH KDV D PXIĻHU WKDW ĺUHV VSDUNV LQWR WKH
desert make for such a beautiful background that they VDQG OLNH ZRXQGLQJ JXQVKRWV t DUHQpW ĺFWLRQDO FUHDWLRQV
could’ve been employed just for visual resonance. And EXW UDWKHU VRPHKRZ UHDO SHRSOH (YHQ WKH ELUGV WKH
WKLV PRQROLWK FRXOG EH D ZRUN RI &*, LQVHUWHG LQWR WKH PRVW XQGHQLDEO\ DXWKHQWLF HOHPHQWV RI 3GD "G@KKDMFD,
empty expanse to make the alien landscape seem even could’ve been wrangled to tell a director’s story. The col
more alien. lective noun for falcons? A cast.

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