Abdurahman Munif’s novel Cities of Salt refers to the transient nature of a city’s existence by examining, in particular, the development of so-called modern cities after the discovery of oil. He sees a loss of humanity in the exchange of culture for the new forms of imperialism coming in from the West, their control of wealth and the new urban spaces that will define these lands from now on. In this selection of films, the reference to Cities of Salt is not a literal reference to the novel, but a short hand for the loss of humanity that accompanies the building of a city. The focus here is on the actual building of the city. Three films, from very different times and geographies, look at the forces that build a city. In chronological order, Metropolis (1927), Mirage (2011) and Taste of Cement (2017) all visit the sharp physical contrasts within urban development. Metropolis, credited as the first feature-length science fiction film ever made, brings us into a world that is divided between the gloomy underground of the toiling class versus the sunny pastures of the elite in the lead up to a workers’ revolution. Mirage takes us to Dubai at a time when the neoliberal vision driving the city had just experienced its first major crack. And finally, Taste of Cement allows us to share in the thoughts and feelings of the men who left their crumbling cities in Syria, only to build the new, shiny high-rise buildings of Beirut.
10/05/2023
Metropolis (1927)
150 min| Germany| German and English with English Subtitles
Director: Fritz Lang
This iconic Fritz Lang film of the silent film era paved the way for urban dystopia films nearly one hundred years later. The ideas, imagery and conflicts depicted in this film are just as relevant and true today as they were then. ‘The great future city of Metropolis in the film is inhabited by two distinct classes: the industrialists live off the fat of the land, supported by the workers who live under the city and endure a bare-bones existence of backbreaking work. The story concerns a forbidden love between Freder (played by Gustav Fröhlich), a young man from the industrialist class, and Maria (Brigitte Helm), an activist who preaches against the divide between the two classes. The subterfuge and deceit involving a robot duplicate of Maria culminate in a revolution that quickly spells disaster for all involved’ (text from Brittanica).
Read more about the film’s making, remakings and influences online at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Metropolis-film-1927
Rethinking the Future, ‘An Architectural Review of Metropolis’, online at: https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/rtf-architectural-reviews/a6188-an-architectural-review-of-metropolis-1927/
17/05/2023
Mirage (2011)
42 min | Serbia, UK | Malayalam, Swahili, Bengali| English Subtitles
Director: Srdjan Keca
At the edge of a city growing in the desert, a man plays alone on a golf course. Another, sleepless, sends a letter from a labour camp to his wife in Kenya. A Sandstorm hits a construction site, and the locals hold a celebration. The city of Dubai and its surrounding desert here become a set for a visual exploration of displacement, and the longings and desires of their inhabitants. Serbian director Srdjan Keca references the destructive elements of neoliberalism and the relationships between people and places as two of his main themes to create this poetic visual reverberation of the growing city of Dubai. He refers to Cities and Desire, a story within Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, ‘The city's streets were streets where they went to work every day, with no link any more to the dreamed chase. Which, for that matter, had long been forgotten’.
This review of Mirage points out its depiction of the anxieties of modernity alongside the dream life of white-collar expats and the gruelling hardships of blue-collar migrant workers. Online at: https://filmandbone.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/mirage-by-srdan-keca-a-sort-of-review-lsff-2012/
24/05/2023
Taste of Cement (2017)
85 min| Syria | Arabic with English Subtitles
Director: Ziad Kalthoum
Ninety years after the making of Metropolis comes Taste of Cement. The film, made by Syrian filmmaker Ziad Kalthoum, is an observational essay documenting Syrian construction workers rebuilding Beirut in the hollow of the civil war, while their own cities are being demolished by the then-current revolution-turned-war. A curfew prohibits them from leaving the construction site after work. Every night, deep in their pit below the high rise building, the news from their homeland and the memories of war chase them. The film is sewn together by the voice of a worker, the son of a construction worker, as he narrates his own meditations and memories, with static images brilliantly shot by Talal Khoury, and the violent rhythmic sounds of construction.
This review examines the construction versus destruction themes, online at: https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/taste-of-cement-2017-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson.