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  • elephantfish
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  • Language English, Tagalog
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part of
double bill #1

elephantfish

Meltse Van Coillie, Belgium, 2018, 27’
VAF Wildcard Filmlab

2018

A ship drifts in the middle of an endless sea. Aboard is a crew of five: three Dutchmen and two Filipino sailors. They all cope with boredom—some by trying to overpower it; others by escaping into a parallel world guided by dreams. elephantfish lures its viewers into an enclosed environment guarded by the freedom of the everlasting horizon. The only escape from this confinement comes in thoughts and dreams.

elephantfish (Meltse Van Coillie, 2018)
elephantfish (Meltse Van Coillie, 2018)
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Dreaming Adrift

Meltse Van Coillie’s elephantfish

Mariana Hristova
01.10.2022
essay

Darkness can be mysterious and scary but also mind-provoking and triggering for one’s fantasy. elephantfish, a film as unusual as its title, starts by describing an equally peculiar dream narrated by a quiet voice in the background of the black frame: an elephant in the sea greedily drinks the water as if trying to swallow it all. As the dreamer approaches the monster, it gets smaller and smaller, no bigger than a fish. Instead of turning into a Leviathan1 as the quasi-mythological premise of the tale suggests, it eventually dies, and the film itself unfolds in a hardly expected way.

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Credits

Script
Meltse Van Coillie
Camera
Harm Dens
Sound
Michel Coquette
Film school
KASK School of Arts
Producer
Meltse Van Coillie
26
experimental documentary mystery poetry

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Devotion

Cynthia Madansky, Turkey, 2003, 34’

A sparing and minimal travelogue of Istanbul. A foreigner meditates on the unraveling of a relationship while moving from hotel room to hotel room. In a city simultaneously devoted to Islam and secular nationalism, she finds refuge in the frailty and severity of rituals.

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Following the Object to Its Logical Beginning

Lynne Sachs, USA, 1987, 7’

Like an animal in one of Eadweard Muybridge’s scientific photo experiments, five undramatic moments in a man’s life are observed by a woman. A study in visual obsession and a twist on the notion of the “gaze”.

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Water and Salt

Luisa Mello, Belgium, Brazil, 2019, 10’

A journey through the consciousness of a woman whose country is under threat from a fascist government.

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Ours is a Country of Words

Mathijs Poppe, Belgium, Lebanon, 2017, 42’

Filmed in Shatila, a refugee camp built in Lebanon when thousands of Palestinians fled their country in 1948. At an undetermined moment in the future, the refugees’ dream of returning to Palestine becomes a reality.

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The Migrating Image

Stefan Kruse Jørgensen, Denmark, 2018, 28’

Following a fictional group of refugees across Europe, the film questions the overproduction of images surrounding real-life tragedies and deaths.

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The Living Wardrobe

Martí Madaula Esquirol, Spain, USA, 2024, 18’

Martí arrives in Bilbao for an artistic residency. In his new room, his clothes occupy only a small portion of the enormous wardrobe. But when he meets someone, the wardrobe slowly begins to fill up. Where has the emptiness gone, the free space, the little corner that was his?

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The End of Suffering (A Proposal)

Jacqueline Lentzou, Greece, 2020, 14’

Sofia is panicky again. The Universe decides to contact her—an other-worldly dialogue. Jacqueline Lentzou’s short film is a planet symphony for Mars, where people dream awake and fight for love.

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Blow Up My Town

Chantal Akerman, Belgium, 1968, 13’

A young woman, played by Chantal Akerman herself, enters her flat in Brussels and begins a household routine that gradually degenerates. Parodying the everyday, she mops the floor, polishes her shoes, and sticks tape over the cracks in the door, thereby giving domestic life an explosive twist.

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