documenta 14 in Athens and Maumaus / Lumiar Cité present in collaboration with the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development and ZDF/3sat, the world premiere of Manthia Diawara’s most recent film An Opera of the World. The film is based on ‘Bintou Were, a Sahel Opera’, which narrates an eternal immigration drama. The opera, filmed in Bamako, in 2007, serves a mirror for Diawara to build an aesthetic and reflexive story, through song and dance, about the current and yet timeless drama of emigration between North and South, and refugee crises. The film ponders about the realities of cultural encounters through the concepts of métissage and hybridity. The success and limits of fusing African and European perspectives are tested by interlacing performances from ‘Bintou Were, a Sahel Opera’, past and present archival footages of migrations, classic European arias and interviews with European and African intellectuals, artists and social activists.

Produced by Maumaus / Lumiar Cité, co-produced by the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, ZDF / 3sat and documenta 14.

Director: Manthia Diawara
Producer: Jürgen Bock

Venues:

EMST – National Museum of Contemporary Art
Kallirrois ave. & Amvr. Frantzi str., 11743 Athens, Greece

Greek Film Archive (GFA)
48, Iera Odos & 134-136 Megalou Alexandrou Str.
GR-104 35 Kerameikos, Athens, Greece

Programme:

06.04 | 5pm Preview Screening, EMST Auditorium
07.04 | 5pm Preview Screening, EMST Auditorium
08.04 | 7pm Preview Screening, EMST Auditorium
09.04 | 5pm Preview Screening, EMST Auditorium
11.04 | 8pm World Premiere, Greek Film Archive (GFA)
02.05 | 8pm Repetition screening, Greek Film Archive (GFA)
06.06 | 8pm Repetition screening, Greek Film Archive (GFA)