ACROSS THE SEAS AND DESERTS

KAŅEPES CULTURE CENTRE BEAN SCREEN 30.09 / 19.00

Stuck in the middle of a desert, stranded on a strange boat in the middle of the sea, hiding at the back of an anonymous truck or marooned at an immigrant camp. Six stories about people who have started their journey but have yet to reach their destination. Short-film protagonists are modern wanderers who in hopes for a better life flee from political regimes, wars and poverty. Many of them find themselves in an unusual and often hopelessly suppressing state of transit for an extended period of time.

MINIYAMBA / WALKING BLUES, Luc Perez, animation, Denmark, France, 2013, 14'3

Like thousands of people around the world who every day leave their homeland, Abdu, a young Malian, has decided to reach Europe. A trip from the Niger River to the barbed wire of the Ceuta, where dreams are confronted with the harsh reality, the distant lights of the West …

BOAT PEOPLE, Paul Meschùh, drama, Germany, 2016, 28"

On his journey from Somalia to Europe, shipwrecked Moussa is picked up by a wealthy couple on their luxurious catamaran. The athletic young man is the only survivor of a disaster in the Mediterranean Sea and asks Hannes and Gerlinde to smuggle him across the border. Questioning Moussa’s true intentions, the yacht owners are torn between mistrust, fear and the urge for helping a fellow human being. A political drama of two separated worlds colliding within one global community.

SUMMER, Ronny Trocker, drama, France, Belgium, 2016, 7"

It is summer and it is hot. Ice cream drips from its cone, a father photographs his child. Then a man suddenly arrests his focus. Inspired by a picture from photographer Juan Medina, taken on the beach of Gran Tarajal in Spain in 2006, director Ronny Trocker animates a situation that happened today as it did yesterday, with the difference that today, no one moves. Time is frozen. A black man lies exhausted on the shore. It seems that no one has noticed his arrival.

NOWHERE LAND: VOICES FROM MANUS ISLAND, Lukas Schrank, animation, Australia, 2014, 15"

Nowhere Line: Voices from Manus Island is an animated short film, which tells the stories of two men, currently detained in Australia's notorious Manus Island Offshore Processing Centre. In October 2014, director Lukas Schrank made phone contact with the men who were able to tell their stories from within the compound. Their interviews offer a chilling insight into the reality of life for the 2000 people currently being held in Australia's offshore detention centres Their stories are the voice of the film, guiding the animation through the backstreets of Jakarta, across the sea and deep into the fenced facility of the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre.

A SOCIETY, Jens Assur, drama, Sweden, 2012, 16"

Eleven strangers are forced to share a confined space on a journey into the unknown. Under severe and uncertain circumstances they face their own prejudice and fears, while having to depend on each other in order to survive. During an undefined period of time the dynamics of the group creates a reflection of the world outside.

REFUGEE BLUES, Stephan Bookas / Tristan Daws, documentary, Great Britain, 2016, 6"

Spartan huts line the highway to the port of Calais. Between them hang washing lines, down below the ground is muddy. Water boils on an open fire, and a shopping trolley holds all someone’s worldly possessions. We see images of the refugees who have set up camp here, and the camera glides across the scene to the text of W. H. Auden’s Refugee Blues. People are beginning to rebel, they want to move on.

Films will be screened in the original language with Latvian subtitles.

Curator: Astra Zoldnere