Basim Magdy
2021
The Many Colors Of The Sky Radiate Forgetfulness
Basim Magdy
The devil throws up waterfalls as monuments stand witness to a war being overshadowed by its successor. The water flows through ancient valleys as birds with stolen feet and borrowed beaks stare at nothing in particular. Only stone, bronze and the sky manage to outlive the fading memories. Faces, gestures and final words mumbled before departure camouflage themselves to blend in with the changing colors of the sky. Loss becomes a tradition for the forgetful and our shadows become slow death in a world of kaleidoscopic confusion.
The Many Colors Of The Sky Radiate Forgetfulness
No Shooting Stars
Basim Magdy
The film No Shooting Stars by Basim Magdy is built around the personal narrative of an unidentified inhabitant of the ocean space, a territory that lays dormant on the margins of our awareness and does not enter history books. Dream-like scenes drift in dissonance with a narration that has no beginning or end. It unfolds like a poem that is affected by the ocean’s secrets but offers no explanation about who is living under the water’s surface, instead meandering through loops of imagination. The image of who exactly the narrator is slips away as soon as it takes shape, reflecting the logic of the unstable grounds of water space.
No Shooting Stars
M.A.G.N.E.T
Basim Magdy
In Basim Magdy's imagined future, the increasing force of gravity has significantly changed life on earth, making it nearly uninhabitable for humans. Markings on the underside of standing stones allude to past catastrophes. Past, present and future merge in this poetic rumination on the impact of an irreversibly changed Earth.
M.A.G.N.E.T
The Dent
Basim Magdy
Starting with shiny rooftops and ending with the seemingly insignificant demise of the last circus elephant of its kind, The Dent weaves loosely linked events and irrational occurrences to reflect upon cycles of collective failure and hopefulness in a town that wakes up to the realization that fate has become its enemy.
The Dent
The Everyday Ritual of Solitude Hatching Monkeys
Basim Magdy
Layered and manually altered 16mm footage intertwines with the soundtrack and the narrative, presented through subtitles, to tell the story of a man who moves away from the sea to escape death by water. He soon finds himself alone when his co-workers go to the beach and never return. Society becomes a stranger and his imagination becomes his only friend. He dials a random number and a romantic conversation about loneliness and the absurdity of reality ensues. His world starts acquiring meaning as he realizes part-time-singer monkeys are running the show.
The Everyday Ritual of Solitude Hatching Monkeys
