INTERFILM42: The Past - Of Landscapes, Objects and Historicity

The films in this programme seek out the end of the thread, search for the right one, pull at it and thus unravel history; the idea of a ‘red thread’ running through history is tempting – but it soon reaches its limits. Instead, a whole tapestry unfurls: they discover history as a chaotic interweaving, a complex fabric or, at times, a knotted ball of wool.

Six films search for loose ends – or beginnings – and pull at them to connect what cannot be separated: the present and the past. Packing lists are written for friends in prison, dancing bodies search for post-Yugoslav or ‘Ostalgic’ identities, and landscapes scarred by colonialism, military history and war are surveyed. Connections become clear, communication becomes possible, narratives are unmasked and history becomes transparent – personal as well as collective, global and political.

What processes mediate between the history of a place, a group or an idea and its presence in the here and now? What forces does the past unleash, and how do these shape the present? What presence do history, heritage, ideology and narratives have within the physical reality of the present? Can global, epoch-defining events and trends also be discerned in the physical reality of places and people that seem as far removed from the cultural and power-political centres of the globalised world as people can possibly imagine? And is this very notion not itself part of the ideological framework emanating from those very centres of power?