Brown Bodies in an Open Landscape are Often Migrating
Brown Bodies in an Open Landscape Are Often Migrating by Basir Mahmood offers a meditation on migration’s complexities through the prism of cinematic re-enactment.
Drawing inspiration from videos recorded by migrants on their arduous journeys from South Asia to Europe, Mahmood collaborates with a Lahore-based film crew to reinterpret these fragments. Yet, the artist deliberately avoids recreating the migrants’ experiences. Instead, the work foregrounds the labour, improvisation and disarray encountered by the film crew – lost actors, scorching conditions and disjointed communication – echoing the struggles of displacement.
The work juxtaposes the poetic and the pragmatic, using soundscapes that starkly contrast the visual narrative, revealing the chasm between immediate experience and its mediated portrayal. Screenshots from the original videos punctuate the film’s reconstructed scenes, linking the raw urgency of real journeys with their stylised remakes. This interplay raises critical questions about representation, authenticity and spectatorship: how do we consume and interpret migration stories? What role does fiction play in unveiling or obscuring truth?
By layering the technical challenges of filmmaking with the lived struggles of migration, Mahmood constructs a narrative that collapses distinctions between fiction and reality. It is a compelling reflection on the politics of representation, exploring how stories of human movement are framed, fragmented and ultimately shaped by those who tell them.
– Eva Langerak
Also in this combined programme
-
Extramission: The Capture of Glowing Eyes
Through image technology we witness acts of conservation and repatriation from London to Argentina. -
Alice, Bob, Carol and David
Four digital characters perform chance-based choreography, fusing autonomy, structure and emotional resonance. -
La Quema (del Planeta “B”)
A visual critique of colonial history and capitalism through ritual, cultural memory and fiery symbolism. -
Show Me the Light — VR Silent Disco
A virtual and rhythmic journey that, reimagining the silent disco, immerses us in search of light.
Trailer
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Film details
- Countries of production
- Netherlands, Pakistan, Italy
- Year
- 2024
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2025
- Length
- 25'
- Medium/Format
- -
