Timur Saulebaev

Eurasia (Questions on Happiness)

Metahaven

Ilya Lim, Lucie de Bréchard

Assembling cinematic sequences shot in the Southeastern Urals and in Macedonia, archival footage and animation, Eurasia (Questions on Happiness) sets forth on a journey towards the Eurasian steppe where it meets the New Silk Road. Imagining a fractured continent in the thrall of self-learning data sites that trigger world events, the film confronts various forms of hoax, from cut and paste political doctrines to neo-classical facade architectures. Mapping ideological and political currents that are presently unraveling the European Union, Eurasia describes fake news as a man-made proxy of the indifference that an artificial intelligence may feel toward the human condition. Through modes of science fiction, documentary, and folk tale, Eurasia creates an immersion within layers of media production, wrapping facts in fictions, and fictions in facts.