Staff of Life

Medium: Moving Image
Year: 2019
Duration: 05min21
Edition: Edition of 4 + 1AP
Shipment: Hard drive

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About

In Arabic bread is synonymous with life. Staff of Life is a moving image portrayal of a working day in a bakery that creates their version of Western pastries. The film examines the process of making dough and metaphorises it by drawing comparisons with aspects of human resilience, and the attempts to reach fulfillment and self realisation in harsh conditions. The languages in the film oscillate between Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu - the three languages have a shared history and influence on one another through art, literature, religions, science, violence, and colonisation. The narrators push and pull through their language similarities and variances, and employ their accented melodic tones, champion the poetics of their spoken words, and continue what is being said by one another seamlessly. The Western pastries pose as a standard that is attempted to live up to, while the hands of the bakers guide the narrative forward. From shapeless large volumes that arrive as multitudes of sweet creations, the dough conceals inside it the series of exacting events that lead to its final state.