S1.E9 ∙ Let There Be Light

The history of Shanghai through the history of one building.

Shaho Jabbari was only 14 years old when he fled his motherland Iraq. The day he left, was the last time he saw his parents. As a young boy, Jabbari arrived in the Netherlands, and he has been living there ever since. 14 years later, when he is a young man, he returns. From the Bijlmer in Amsterdam. Back to Iraq.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising has become a symbol of heroism throughout the world, but it's generally accepted story is incomplete. Among the fighters was a group that was not granted commemoration, although it was responsible for the uprising major battle.

The story is based on Guy de Maupassant's novella of the same name. The soundtrack is largely the same text. The film is a mixture of live action and animation filmed in various techniques. In many scenes images coalesce into tableaus. Each subject is given apparent levels of meaning, which in turn stand beside and on top of one another on equal footing. The meaninglessness of that which seems so certain such as gender or age is exposed with great relish. The individual threads run parallel, only touching occasionally but nevertheless influencing the overall image. Boule de suif is ultimately sold down the river. The visual language in its complexity is reminiscent of commercial television, particularly of infomercials with their continuous fade-ins and over-blendings. The shifts in meaning inevitably evoke contradictions that at times seem bizarre. Everything combines to form a fantastic panorama of shapes and colors that goes far beyond any narrative and in large parts venerates the pure form.

Animated movie, exclusively created with period engravings, about the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the ensuing Paris Commune revolution in 1871.