A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness
Ben Rivers / FR, EE, DE, 2013 / 98 min.
Musician Robert A.A. Lowe (aka Lichens) wanders out of the Finnish wilderness into a black metal show in this strange and hypnotic work on spiritual longing and ecstatic beauty. Screened to accompany the exhibition around the EYE Art & Film Prize.
Ben Rivers, winner of the EYE Art & Film Prize, and Ben Russell follow a man in three apparently unrelated episodes in his life. After a stunning 360-degree shot of a northern lake at sunrise, we travel with him to a small island in Estonia, where a commune of fifteen live their lives in peace. Next we see him leading an isolated existence in the majestic wilderness of northern Finland, though he fails to connect with nature. Finally we watch him perform as the front man of a black metal band during a grim concert in Norway, in an intense 35-minute single take.
The hypnotic A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness is full of darkness, ecstatic beauty and an optimism of the darkest kind. The makers call it a radical proposal to explore possible utopias in the postmodern era.
This is part of
Details
Director
Ben Rivers
Production year
2013
Country
FR, EE, DE
Original title
A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness
Length
98 min.
Language
English
Format
DCP
Part of
Hito Steyerl, Ben Rivers, Wang Bing
The intersection between film and visual art is an important focus of exhibition policy at Eye. To underline this, Eye and the Paddy and Joan Leigh Fermor Arts Fund launched an annual prize in 2015 to promote new work by an artist/filmmaker who is making an important contribution to this interdisciplinary field.
Share your love for film and become a member of the Eye Society.