Desert of the Real
Infos
Deutschland 2017
Sprache(OF): englisch
Regie: Christian von Borries
Drehbuch: Christian von Borries
Schnitt: Halina Daugird
77 min
Film und Gespräch
DESERT OF THE REAL
A: The Simulacrum of War
B: Venice Vice, a franchise fatigues
An essayistic documentary film as postmodern Western
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Anschliessend Gespräch des Filmemachers und der Editorin mit dem Publikum
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It’s been six years since the real estate bubble burst, and already, the glittering ruins of developer architecture are being reclaimed by nature. Entire suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona are overgrown with tumbleweed.
In post-Soviet Georgia, unfinished resorts rot on the Black Sea Coast.
In Abu Dhabi, palm trees are dying among half-built film studios and sports complexes. It is where now the world’s biggest arms fair takes place, held in the same kind of desert that provides the location for most of our time’s real and virtual wars. Elsewhere, new man-made deserts take shape as shopping mall replicas of Venice, inhabited by the living dead...
Composer and filmmaker Christian von Borries’ new film DESERT OF THE REAL visits these contemporary wastelands. In a rich collage of acted scenes and documentary footage, he extends the metaphor of the wasteland to today’s medial reality. At the heart of so many holographic simulations and replicas, in a world custom-made for selfie and instagram tweets, he reveals emptiness and potential violence. (David Riff)
The only way to trace the distinction between the semblance and the Real is, precisely, to STAGE it in a fake spectacle. (Zizek, Wecome to the Desert of the Real)
Desert filmed at Abu Dhabi/AE, Arizona/US, Cap Ferret/FR, Dubai/AE, Lazika/GE, Nevada/US, Tropical Island/DE and the Venice Biennale/IT
Venice filmed at Canaletto, Doha/QA, Dongguan/CN, Hangzhou/CN, Las Vegas/US, Macau/MO, Shenzhen/CN and Venezia/IT
Text by Jean Baudrillard, Walter Benjamin, George Forestier, Siegmund Freud, Jerome K. Jerome, Ayn Rand, Riccardo Tisci, Kanye West, Yevgeny Zamyatin and others
starring "human Barbie" Valeria Lukyanova and James N. Kienitz
Eugenia Cooney and Essena O’Neill in supporting roles
Jülide Bozdogan, Frank Geier, Isabelle Hunstiger, Damia Kleemeyer, Johanna Malecki, Luisa Tarazchorus and Katrin Thiemer, chorus actors
Christian von Borries, camera
Olaf Mach, Green Screen set up and camera
additional footage by n. n. (Jordan) and Gianni Talamini (Macau)
Steve Leonhardt, additional clip editing
Andrea Richter, Nastya Ryabova and Nora Wehofsits, assistants
Philipp Otto, best boy
Wolfgang Voigt, Rayess Bek and Christian von Borries with Ensemble Garage and musicians of the Centre for Early Music Cologne and Henry Andersen, soundtrack
Ferdi Föcking, Hair and Make up
Team of the Academy of the Arts of the World Cologne, technical production
Jan Kryszons, technical director
Sebastian Kleinloh, Sound Mastering
FXfactory, Coloring and VFX
produced by Academy of the Arts of the World Cologne, Elke Moltrecht
Thank you Ekaterina Degot and David Riff
funding by Film und Medien Stiftung NRW
a masseundmacht production, 2017
no copyright no license