Unstable Rocks + Perishable Idol + Available Light
Ewelina Rosinska, Nuno Barroso, Majid Al-Remaih & Morgan Quaintance / Germany, Portugal, France, Kuwait, Qatar & United Kingdom / 76 min
‘Unstable Rocks’ by Ewelina Rosinska and Nuno Barroso is a beautiful visual poem of wild Portuguese nature shot on analog 16mm film. A work with an organic rhythm that extends from the landscapes and wildlife to the editing.
In Majid Al-Remaih’s film ‘Perishable Idol’, native archaeologist Hassan Al-Failakawy returns to the abandoned island of Failaka off the coast of Kuwait. Between the wilderness and the various ruins of the island after the Gulf War, Hassan is faced with questions of restitution and belonging.
Morgan Quaintance’s ‘Available Light’ explores home and belonging in modern society through interviews with the staff of a museum of architecture in Tokyo and conversations with tenants in the city and in London. With his impressionistic images and abstract sound design, Quaintance has created an immersive spatial experience.
Unstable Rocks
Ewelina Rosinska & Nuno Barroso / Germany & Portugal / 2024 / International Premiere / 26 min
A beautiful analog visual poem from the wild Portuguese nature with an organic rhythm that propagates from landscapes and wildlife to the editing.
‘Unstable Rocks’ by Ewelina Rosinska and Nuno Barroso is a beautiful analog visual poem of wild Portuguese nature shot on 16mm film. It is a work with an organic rhythm that extends from landscapes and wildlife to the editing. Whereas in the Romantic tradition, nature motifs have been an expression of originality and timelessness, the work integrates the work that artists and activists are engaged in to preserve contemporary nature even in a time of increased industrialization and gentrification.
Perishable Idol
Majid Al-Remaih / France, Kuwait & Qatar / 2025 / World Premiere / 19 min
On a deserted island off Kuwait City, a local archaeologist reflects on memory and history as the recent past becomes increasingly distant.
On the horizon, the skyline of Kuwait City rises above the sea against a dark blue sky. When viewed from the abandoned island of Failaka – formerly known as Icarus – the city is a mirage of the future. In Majid Al-Remaih’s atmospheric and elliptic film ‘Perishable Idol’, local archaeologist Hassan Al-Failakawy returns to Failaka to study the physical remains of the past in the sand. Between the wasteland and the modern ruins of the Gulf War, he asks himself questions about time, restitution and belonging. The bright light of day and the bluish darkness of night are interrupted only by the greenish flashes of a Nightvision camera from the bomb campaigns during the war.
Available Light
Morgan Quaintance / United Kingdom / 2025 / World Premiere / 31 min
A beautiful, fragmented film about home as a concept and physical place, with Tokyo and London as examples in opposite corners of the world.
Morgan Quaintance’s ‘Available Light’ explores home and belonging in modern society through interviews with the staff of a museum of architecture in Tokyo and conversations with tenants in the city and in London. Shapes, lines and natural light are among the organic and man-made elements of the beautiful Japanese houses. But in a time of acute housing shortage in the world’s megacities, home has taken on new meaning, and with its fragmented and polyphonic montage of image and sound (not to mention a creative use of subtitles!), Quaintance gives a spatial and abstract form to the urban experience.