Birmingham Ornament 2 (2013)

Why in the world is a Georgian chorus singing a traditional song that unexpectedly mentions the death of Saddam Hussein? The stars of the film, taken by surprise, talk about this odd turn of events "live". The conversation then shifts to samurais by the sea, the poets Mandelstam, Kliuev and Gorodezky, Moscow in the 1930s, and a Russian painter who immortalized Putin fishing. All surreal glimpses of the artist's relationship with power. The "second part" of a film that stirred a scandal at the Orizzonti section of the 2011 Venice Film Festival. Director's statement The goal of this experimental film was to apply the technology and linguistic peculiarities of modern fine arts to the cinema. The film consists of several lines: each of these lines was shot with its own specific stylistics in different corners of the planet. All the lines in the film intersect to form a common statement expressing criticism of modern civilization and tossing around Oriental tyranny and European democracy's lack of determination.