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HD, 16:9

Colour

Non spoken
14’58”

— MSR | 2012

Wim Catrysse

 

Main Supply Route: The route designated within conflict areas upon which the bulk of traffic flows in support of military operations.

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MSR depicts, at first sight, a completely desolate desert landscape. During the first six-and-a-half minutes, Catrysse almost exclusively uses a long travelling shot. When, however, stray dogs appear in the scene—walking around, lying on the ground, resisting the strong winds of a heavy sandstorm—the camera stops and continues to film from a static, 'photofilmic' perspective for the remainder of the film, emphasizing the dogs’ connection with the land.

 

The viewer feels completely disoriented: one knows that this must be somewhere, during some time on this planet, yet the setting appears so post-apocalyptic that it is hard to believe that these are actual living conditions in some place on earth. The scavenger dogs rather appear as uncanny survivors in the aftermath of a global disaster. It is only at the end that one obtains confirmation of human presence in what turns out to be the Kuwaiti desert’s Main Supply Route to the strategic military airbase of Ali Al Salem.

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The film was screened or exhibited at:

 

  • HISK @ Tick Tack Cinema, Antwerp (BE), 2019

  • MACRO | Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma (IT), 2018

  • Luca Biënnale: (Let Yourself) Fall, Keizersberg, Leuven (BE), 2017

  • AIR Antwerpen (BE), 02 Sep. 2017 

  • Art Cinema OFFoff (BE), 26 Mar. 2017

  • Animal/Humain, Images Ventenac, Ventenac en Minervois (FR), 2015

  • Les Rencontre Internationales, HKW, Berlin (DE), 2015

  • Inventar el Possible, Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona, (ES), 2015

  • Light Cone, Film cycle inspired by Mark Lewis: ‘Details’, Cinéma des Cinéastes, Paris (FR), 2015

  • 15th Videonale, Call of the Wild, Kunstmuseum Bonn (DE), 2015

  • Fokus 2015, Video Art Festival, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen (DK), 2015

  • Out There, Viewmaster Projects, Fenixloods 1, Rotterdam (NL), 2015

  • Fata Morgana, IKOB Museum, Eupen (BE), 2014

  • Restricted Area, CC Mechelen / Contour, Mechelen (BE), 2014

  • Museumnacht, Cinema Zuid, Antwerp (BE), 2014

  • Footnotes N°2, Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerp (BE), 2014

  • Inventer le Possible, Jeu de Paume, Paris (FR), 2014

  • Kasseler Documentarfilm- und video fest, Kassel (DE), 2014

  • Les Rencontres Internationales, Gaîté Lyrique, Paris (FR), 2014

  • Purgatorio (theatre), De Parade, Bozar, Brussels (BE), 2012

 

Credits:

 

  • Produced by Escautville

  • Coproduced by theatre company De Parade, Contour Mechelen, CC Mechelen

 

  • Cinematography, Editing and Sound design: Wim Catrysse

  • Sound recordist: Dries Engels

 

  • Thanks to: De Parade, Rudi Meulemans, Contour, Steven Op de Beeck, Etienne van den Bergh, CC Mechelen, Koen Leemans

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MSR, 2012 | excerpt

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