kagablog

“Stations Of The Cross”

Ian Kerkhof’s short film made in 1990 is a great film, 11 minutes long. We’ve got into the habit of watching it every year during the Holy Week, in order to have a complete vision of the Passion of Christ: aesthetic, emotional and profane at the same time. Aryan Kaganof transforms the ritual of the crucifixion into an S&M performance, setting the scene with stills of him in the role of Christ. A black executioner and others inflict torture upon him. At times the photos reveal a few demythologising secrets as to the making of the film – some of the actors surrounding the hero (in other words, the director) are wearing contemporary clothes.
However, the most demythologising element is the presence of pins in the clothes the actor is wearing - they belong to our time, not Christ’s. They leave visible traces on his body – even his beard is full of pins, making us think of the Devil. It’s a very symbolic counter-argument because Kerkhof is playing Christ. And so in this film the two contradictory forces coexist symbolically, perfectly “reconciled and wedded” - the same forces that make all the author’s films so resonant.
A monologue in Polish completes the soundtrack, which opens with an Orthodox psalm. The film is dedicated to the memory of the Georgian film-maker Serguei Paradjanov, who was condemned to forced labour during Stalin’s occupation of his country because of his homosexuality.
Some of the films images have been reworked eleven years later to form “It’s The Children”, which we showed as a French premiere the 11/12/05 (see corresponding article), while the original film “Stations of the Cross” had its French premiere at the “Freakzone Festival” in Lille in 1997.

Dionysos ANDRONIS

(Sunday 9th April, 2006, the week before Easter)

translated from the french by lucy lyall grant