De Oylem iz a Goylem
by Omer Fast, Austria, Germany 2019, 24'
SCREENPLAY: Omer Fast   MUSIC: Angel (Ilpo Väisänen and Dirk Dresselhaus)
PHOTOGRAPHY: Stefan Ciupek   PRODUCER: Seamus Kealy
EDITING: Omer Fast   LANGUAGE: Vo: Yiddish, German; Sub: Italian
COMMISSIONED BY: Salzburger Kunstverein   SUPPORTED BY: James Cohan Gallery, New York; Yasuharu Ishikawa, The Ishikawa Foundation, Osaka; Taro Nasu Gallery, Tokyo

Schermo dell'Arte - Archivio Film  Presented at Lo schermo dell'arte 2020

Omer Fast’s film is a representation of the relationship between the human and the supernatural. In a mountain resort, a lone skier meets the ghost of an Orthodox Jew, who appears sitting next to her in the chairlift. The apparition tells a Jewish fairy tale full of stereotypes: a greedy Jew, a submissive wife, a seductive devil-woman. In a continuous intertwining between past and present, reality and fairy-tale, the film alternates scenes set in the Middle Ages inhabited by characters with large fake noses, with footage shot at the ski resort, where the flesh-and-blood ghost is a dissonant, surreal element. Like the protagonist, who must break the boundaries between the real world and fairy tales to exorcise the ghost, the viewer must reflect on his own beliefs and wonder if, as the title says, the world is a Golem.

Omer Fast (Israel 1972, lives and works in Berlin) is one of the most acclaimed international video artists. His recent solo exhibitions have been held at Salzburger Kunstverein, Jeu de Paume Paris, Baltic Center of Contemporary Arts in Gateshead, Kunsten Museum in Aalborg. His works are part of numerous international collections, including Tate Modern, Guggenheim Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Centre Pompidou. In 2015 he made Remainder, his first feature film, starring Tom Sturridge.

Selecred Filmography:
Spring, 2016; August, 2016; Continuity, 2016; Remainder, 2015.

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