YARAT FILM CLUB: LARISSA SANSOUR'S FILM 'NATION ESTATE' IN FRAME 3RD BAKU PUBLIC ART

YARAT Contemporary Art Space Film Club invites to the Larissa Sansour’s film screening 'Nation Estate' 10 July 2015 with present of artist. The screening will be organized as a part of in frame 3rd Baku Public Art Festival `A Drop Of Sky` curated by Sara Raza. 

A series of film screenings inspired by science fiction and futurism will run from July to August at YARAT Contemporary Art Centre’s auditorium and open air cinema on the rooftop of YAY Gallery.

NATION ESTATE / 2013 / Palestine, Denmark

9 min / sci-fi / Colour

Synopsis: Nation Estate is a sci-fi short film offering a clinically dystopian, yet humorous approach to the deadlock in the Middle East. 

With a mixture of computer generated imagery, live actors and arabesque electronica, Nation Estate explores a vertical solution to Palestinian statehood. In Sansour’s film, Palestinians have their state in the form of a single skyscraper: the Nation Estate. One colossal high-rise houses the entire Palestinian population – now finally living the high life. 

Each city has its own floor: Jerusalem on the 13th floor, Ramallah on the 14th floor, Sansour’s native Bethlehem on the 21st and so on. Intercity trips previously marred by checkpoints are now made by elevator. Aiming for a sense of belonging, the lobby of each floor reenacts iconic squares and landmarks. 

The story follows the female lead, played by Sansour herself, in a futuristic folklore suit returning home from a trip abroad and making her way through the lobby of the monstrous building – sponsored and sanctioned by the international community. Having passed the security checks, she takes the elevator to the Bethlehem floor and crosses Manger Square and Church of the Nativity on her way to her apartment where she prepares a plate of sci-fi tabouleh.

NATION ESTATE prizes: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury – Oberhausen International Short Film Festival 2013; Rotterdam International Film Festival 2013; Best Short Film of the Critics Jury – International Festival of Arab Cinemas Marseille 2013; International Oriental Film Festival Geneva 2013; Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival 2013

Larissa Sansour is a Palestinian artist born in East Jerusalem. Her work is immersed in the current political dialogue and utilises video, photography, installation, the book form and the internet. 

The dichotomy of belonging to and being removed from the very same piece of land is central to Sansour’s work. She often resorts to fictionalised space to address current political realities. With references ranging from science fiction to spaghetti westerns, her grandiose and often humorous schemes clash with the gravity expected from works commenting on the Middle East. 

Recent solo exhibitions include Galerie Anne de Villepoix in Paris, Photographic Center in Copenhagen, Kulturhuset in Stockholm, Depo in Istanbul and Jack the Pelican in New York. 

Sansour’s work has featured in the biennials of Istanbul and Liverpool. She has exhibited at venues such as Tate Modern, London; Brooklyn Museum, NYC; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Al Hoash, Jerusalem; Queen Sofia Museum, Madrid; House of World Cultures, Berlin, and MOCA, Hiroshima.

July 10, 2015

Time 7.30

YARAT Contemporary Art Centre (near the National Flag square)

Free admission

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