kagablog

Aryan Kaganof’s film WESTERN 4.33 is about the forgotten concentration camps on the west coast of Namibia. This is where the German colonisers imprisoned the Namiban people who were in uprising. “From their Christian churches the Germans could literally see the Herero people dying in the camp on Shark Island. There is no discussion possible about whether they knew it was happening or not. The grim reality behind the project to ‘civilize the natives’ is that they systematically starved these people in camps conceived to kill. An unbelievable contradiction.’

Kaganof has expressed his opprobrium in an experimental, associative, not easy to consume form. For hm it is the only possible manner. ‘I don’t believe that history unfolds its grand narrative outside of us. We internalise historical movements in our emotions and our feelings.’ He wanted to tell the story in a subtle way and force people to think for themselves. ‘I would prefer it if people use the material as a basis for their own reflections and discussions.’

In high-contrast black and white the film shows deserted barracks in an empty, wind-swept desert. Here he cuts in colour images of a woman in slow-motion; this is the other story-line, about a lost love affair. We hear a man’ voice in an African language. What he says is unclear.

‘I did not have it sub-titled because the German colonisers never bothered to learn the Herero language and never understood them.’ This is an alienating device, in the same way as the large letters that tell the grim historical story. Kaganof once again draws a parallel to the Germans who were constantly imposing ther manner of seeing, reading and speaking on the Namibian people.

The 4.33 of the title refers to John Cage, whose composition of the same title consists of silence, or at least the sounds of the auditorium where it is performed. The last two sections of the film, which is edited as a triptych in time, each consist of segments of 4min 33 seconds. The final section is of nothing more than a setting sun. ‘It is important that the audience feel imprisoned while watching this film. Nothing happens, there is no entertainment. You are forced to reflect and experience a fraction of the terror of that imprisonment.’

WESTERN RE-EDITED

Last April WESTERN 4.33 won the First prize at the 12th African Film Festival of Milan. The length of the video version was 50 minutes. The film version has been re-edited and shortened to 32 minutes. In order to get the film onto 35mm a choice was made to reduce some of the formal elements in the film and concentrate on the story of the Herero genocide by the German colonisers. The triptych form was, however, retained. Director Aryan Kaganof: ‘It is as with poetry, this film has its own inherent formal rules.’

-Wendy Koops
international film festival rotterdam daily