↩

The Birds Choose the Cards

Basim Magdy
24'

What was intended as a film about tourism, sunsets and war, quickly turns into a puzzle with its pieces tangled between ancient philosophy and a strong desire to see the future. An emotional film where first-person narration transcends the absurdity of the journey it narrates to explore the defeat of empathy. The dissonant soundtrack highlights the warmth in the details of the narrator’s journey.

Basim Magdy traces his latest essay film along the vast abyss of global capitalism – as well as along its trademark industrial spaces, liminal and impersonal at the same time: ports, warehouses, highways, juxtaposed with 16mm yellow-tinted segments shot in the heart of nature. In this abyss the artist finds the right space to weave a contemplative essay about time and contemporary spectacles – tourist and military spectacles, and those of related industries –, which he illustrates sonically with an abstract, dreamlike soundtrack. A poignant meditation, sometimes funny, other times bitter, about the nature of this decade of disasters, from the pandemic to ongoing wars, a decade that stubbornly repeats the mistakes of the past – all haunted by a bright future that never came to be. (Flavia Dima)

Friday, September 26, 18:00

Cinemateca Eforie
Tickets

Basim Magdy

Basim Magdy is an artist and filmmaker born in Assiut, Egypt. His work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions at museums and institutions all around the world. His films are in museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art New York, Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France FRAC Ile-de-France (le Plateau), Paris, MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rom, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharja, Arter, Istanbul and Mathaf, Museum of Modern Arab Art, Doha among others.

Invention of the Self

All films →

happiness

Fırat Yücel | Duration 18'

An urgent desktop diary made at the intersection of a hectic digital landscape and the inner violence of modern colonization. The film chronicles the sleepless nights of a group of activists, eyes fixed on screens as they follow the news from Palestine and the Middle East. In Amsterdam, far from their home countries, police violence and the threat of deportation glue them to digital interfaces night after night.

How Are You?

Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel | Duration 31'

A group of animals live on a wild coastline and try to heal the ills caused by the contemporary world. A kind of rehab.

The Birds Choose the Cards

Basim Magdy | Duration 24'

What was intended as a film about tourism, sunsets and war, quickly turns into a puzzle with its pieces tangled between ancient philosophy and a strong desire to see the future. An emotional film where first-person narration transcends the absurdity of the journey it narrates to explore the defeat of empathy. The dissonant soundtrack highlights the warmth in the details of the narrator’s journey.

Being John Smith

John Smith | Duration 27'

After enduring many decades of embarrassment and discomfort, the artist finally admits that possessing the most common name in the English-speaking world has had a profound impact on his sense of self. Combining fragments of autobiography with interjections concerning confidence, self-doubt and the state of the world, BEING JOHN SMITH takes us on a confessional journey that addresses universal dilemmas as well as personal ones, revealing just how important a name can be.

Meniu →