The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers

  • 96'
  • United Kingdom
  • 2015
"Can all people who aren’t acting leave?" The hardships of being a director are tangible in the latest Ben Rivers film, which is just as mysterious as its title (a reference to a work by Paul Bowles). Rivers was present in Morocco’s Atlas mountains on the sets of Oliver Laxe’s Herzog-inspired production Las Mimosas, and there he primarily documented frustration, hiatus and inertia.
It is only when Laxe doesn’t see the point of filming any more (beware: we are slowly moving into fictional territory) that The Sky Trembles... becomes more than a film in a film and a film about film. Rivers then puts Laxe through a new agony, based on Bowles’ short story A Distant Episode. The Spanish director is kidnapped by a group of nomads who sell him to a different tribe as a gleaming, dancing object. It is an unthinkable action that reflects as much on the difficult relationship between man, nature and film as on the previous difficult scenes behind the scenes.

  • 96'
  • United Kingdom
  • 2015
Director
Ben Rivers
Country of production
United Kingdom
Year
2015
Festival Edition
IFFR 2016
Length
96'
Medium
35mm
Languages
Arabic, French, Spanish, English
Producer
Jacqui Davies
Production Company
Artangel
Sales
Jacqui Davies Limited.
Cinematography
Ben Rivers
Editor
Benjamin Mirguet, Ben Rivers
Sound Design
Philippe Ciompi
Cast
Oliver Laxe
Website
http://theskytrembles.com
Director
Ben Rivers
Country of production
United Kingdom
Year
2015
Festival Edition
IFFR 2016
Length
96'
Medium
35mm
Languages
Arabic, French, Spanish, English
Producer
Jacqui Davies
Production Company
Artangel
Sales
Jacqui Davies Limited.
Cinematography
Ben Rivers
Editor
Benjamin Mirguet, Ben Rivers
Sound Design
Philippe Ciompi
Cast
Oliver Laxe
Website
http://theskytrembles.com