Two construction workers wander through a hybrid natural-industrial zone by day and night, exploring and discovering seemingly insignificant details. This experimental film is a walking tour through a possibly post-apocalyptic world where the familiar seems alien, invoking a sense of mystery and wonder towards the natural world and our relationship to it. It is a slow, totally visual work with phantasmic nighttime sequences and attention to the tactile (a piece of shale, moss, a shell) as the two men touch, feel, and listen to the world around them. Unsettling and eerie at times, the film never explicitly answers any questions, yet their journey is oddly compelling. With an atmosphere reminiscent of Tarkovsky’s Stalker, the film forces us to find our own interpretations of their explorations.
Community Partner
Luca Ruch, Olivier Matthey
Switzerland
2021
In French with English subtitles
Featured in:
International Shorts: Personal Journeys
The films in this shorts program are all about discovery. Beautiful and thought-provoking voyages of internal and external discovery that honour relations and history, while encountering stimuli that promote a new understanding of self.
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Akashi
In Mayumi Yoshida’s tender drama, struggling artist Kana journeys to Tokyo to attend her grandmother’s funeral. While there, she reconnects with her childhood love and stumbles across a family secret that prompts her to reconsider her place in the world.
The History of Concrete
After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.
I Am Not a Witch
Rungano Nyoni's acclaimed debut feature is a visually striking satire about a 9-year-old orphan accused of witchcraft in contemporary Zambia. Screening in the latest African Cinema Now! series, The Witch at the Edge of the Screen.
Queen at Sea
An academic is pitted against her stepfather in a moral crisis over the care of her mother, who lives with dementia. Winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize and Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance at the 2026 Berlinale.
Image: © Seafaring
Credits
Producer
Delphine Jeanneret
Screenwriter
Andrea Bordoli
Cinematography
Andrea Bordoli
Editor
Andrea Bordoli, Noemie Ruben
Original Music
Marco Guglielmetti, Andrea Bordoli
Director
Andrea Bordoli
Andrea Bordoli’s research and practice lies at the intersection between anthropological theory, film, and visual art. His works have been presented in academic settings and exhibited in film festivals and art spaces nationally and internationally. He is currently pursuing a research-creation PhD in Media Anthropology at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Since January 2022, he has been a visiting artist-researcher in the Anthropology Department of McGill University.