CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS
Drawing on the medieval poem, Mantiq at-Tayr (engl.: Conference of the Birds), composed in 1177 by the Sufi poet Attar, this cinematically-projected event takes the form of a narrative film. The scenery depicts a trial in an empty, abandoned space: a non-place, a moment in-between time. There are two characters: the judge and the accused. The accused is a filmmaker who made an amorous film to illuminate the distance between himself and his beloved. Upon finishing the film, he is arrested and accused of hypnotizing the citizens, causing them to rise up and turning their inner reality outward into the public sphere. Spread across these two narratives, the voice over takes the spectator on a journey through seven acts, and together they both migrate like the group of birds that travel through seven valleys in search of the ‘bird of the birds’, the Simurgh, until arriving at the final scene, the Valley of Death.
Drawing on the medieval poem, Mantiq at-Tayr (engl.: Conference of the Birds), composed in 1177 by the Sufi poet Attar, this cinematically-projected event takes the form of a narrative film. The scenery depicts a trial in an empty, abandoned space: a non-place, a moment in-between time. There are two characters: the judge and the accused. The accused is a filmmaker who made an amorous film to illuminate the distance between himself and his beloved. Upon finishing the film, he is arrested and accused of hypnotizing the citizens, causing them to rise up and turning their inner reality outward into the public sphere. Spread across these two narratives, the voice over takes the spectator on a journey through seven acts, and together they both migrate like the group of birds that travel through seven valleys in search of the ‘bird of the birds’, the Simurgh, until arriving at the final scene, the Valley of Death.
Length: 48 Minutes
Screening Formats: Pro Res, Quicktime
Versions: English & Farsi
2011
Cast: Matt Trayonski, Shahryar Shahmatt, Azin Feizabadi
Narrator: Saba Riazi, Azin Feizabadi
Writer, Director, Editor: Azin Feizabadi
Text and Image Contributions: Andrea Geyer, Farkhondeh Shahroudi,
Neda Saeedi, Ernesto Pujol
Director of Photography: Christopher Turiello
Production Manager: Colin Nusbaum, Vladana Ilic, Lukas Brasiskis
Distribution: Arsenal Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V.
Screenings (selection):
The Kitchen, New York, 2011
Berlinale – Forum Expanded, Arsenal Kino Berlin, 2012
Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, 2012
Theater am Marienbad, Freiburg, 2015
Related monitors:
I Confess that I ...
Related stagings:
Poetics, Politics & Love Letters
Notes on Projection
Related displays:
Physical Principles
Felix, what will remain after all this?
Mission (Im)possible
ENQELAB
I Confess that I ...
Related stagings:
Poetics, Politics & Love Letters
Notes on Projection
Related displays:
Physical Principles
Felix, what will remain after all this?
Mission (Im)possible
ENQELAB
Related articles:
منطق الطیر با گویشی نوین در فستیوال برلن, Radio France International, February 2012 © rfi, Shahla Rostami
منطق الطیر با گویشی نوین در فستیوال برلن, Radio France International, February 2012 © rfi, Shahla Rostami
