The Embassy
Experimental
•
21m
Directed by Chris Marker • Drama • 1973 • 21 minutes
One of Chris Marker's few fiction films, THE EMBASSY shows political dissidents seeking refuge in a foreign embassy after a military coup d'état in an unidentified country. Over the next few days, more and more people fleeing the military assault-teachers, students, intellectuals, artists, and politicians-arrive at the embassy.
An anonymous cameraman records the tense situation with his Super-8 camera, and provides a voice-over commentary, as the Ambassador and his wife arrange to house and feed the growing group, who monitor radio reports of the alarming political developments-including thousands of political prisoners detained in a stadium, and reports of executions-and glimpse activities on the streets outside. The refuge-seekers accommodate themselves to the makeshift living arrangements, find ways to pass the time, and engage in often heated political debates.
"Something of a cross between the immersive docufiction of Peter Watkins and the reflexive diaries of Jonas Mekas… serves as both a portent and potent statement on the myth of cinema as a direct representation of reality." —Acquarello, The Auteurs Cinema Blog
Up Next in Experimental
-
Silent Witnesses
Directed by Luis Ospina, Jerónimo Atehortúa • Experimental/Drama • With Mara Meba, Roberto Estrada Vergara • 2023 • 79 minutes
“Silent Witnesses” tells the impossible love story between Efraín and Alicia during the first half of the 20th century in Colombia.
Based on remnants of the few Colom... -
Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of H...
Directed by Maya Deren • Documentary • 1977 • 52 minutes
A journey into the fascinating world of the Voudoun religion edited from footage shot by Deren in Haiti.
"Maya Deren was a brilliant filmmaker and theorist whose substantial body of films and writings has paled beside the even larger lege...
-
The Apocalyptic is the Mother of All ...
Directed by Jim Finn • Documentary • With Linda Montano, Usama Alshaibi, Jim Finn, Begüm Malkoçlar • 2023 • 64 minutes
A psychedelic portrait of the founding theorist of Christianity. The story of Paul the Apostle’s life, ideology and influence is told by piecing together 20th Century 16mm and ...
