HORIZON OF EXILE

Film (fiction/ choreographic/ testimonial)

A film by Isabel Rocamora
IMZ Dance Screen Award 2007 - 'Best Screen Choreography (over 15 mins)', The Hague
Choreography Media Honors Award 2008 - Dance Camera West, L.A

SCREENINGS  -    INSTALLATION   -   READ ON REPRESENTATION   -   TRAILER  -   REVIEWS & AWARDS 

"An original treatment of a social theme... an existential, emotive imaginary of exile... uniting the suggestion of place to that of experimental choreography"
Veronica D'Auria, Luxflux Arte Contemporanea, Italy

"The most moving short film... it expresses with great economy
both the pain of leaving and that of staying"
Deborah Jowitt, The Village voice, N.Y.C

"Rocamora is one of the most successful in this emerging field"
Christine Finn, Guardian Unlimited, U.K

“Horizon of Exile is a brilliant film; it is beautiful, lyrical, political and important”
Mairead Turner, Director South East Dance, U.K

"A singular piece of art"
IMZ Jury Citation, The Hague

Horizon of Exile follows the journey of exile of two women (Camila Valenzuela, Paulina Garrido) across timeless desert landscapes. Strongly referencing Middle Eastern culture the film reflects on the female condition; self-image, belonging and effacement. Within a cinematic framework punctuated by voice testimonies of Iraqi exiles, Horizon employs choreographed gesture to consider issues of land and identity. Set to a soundtrack by Jivan Gasparyan the bodies betray a serene violence, travelling as though released from consciousness or gravity, falling and recuperating, haunted by an irrepressible past.

The film particularly looks at female identity echoing cultures where woman is forced to leave her country in order to salvage her sense of self. In this way Horizon strongly references particular Middle Eastern contexts while wishing to treat universal questions surrounding self-image, belonging and effacement.

Positioning itself between the cinematic, the real and the performative the work sits somewhere between fiction, representation and metaphor. Testimonies of Kurdish and central Iraqi women, today living in London, inform the unfolding of the narrative, in particular the stories of Surma Hamid and Nadia Mahmood. Alongside are testimonies of two older women, also exiles, now local to the landscapes of the Atacama desert, Chile (where the film was shot). This chorus of voices carries, on the one hand strong memories of female circumscision, erasure and escape, and on the other simple images of a distant childhood home.

Shot on 16 mm by Nic Knowland (Institute Benjamenta, Piano Tuner), the photography wishes to capture the epic nature of the landscapes, bringing to the fore a beauty which often sits uncomfortably with the film’s emotive subconscious.