The Nine Muses

John Akomfrah has created a documentary essay about immigrants of different races who came to Britain after the Second World War. In his film he combines archive material with shots of the Alaskan winter wilderness. Aphorisms from Homer, Shakespeare, and Joyce – as well as from authors of different cultural spheres (e.g. Chinese poet Li Po) – give a new dimension to the contemplative passing images. The soundtrack has a corresponding diversity, with works by Franz Schubert, Lisa Gerrard, and even Indian folk melodies. The individual film chapters are dedicated to the nine Muses, while a determining role is played by their mother Mnemosyne, the personification of memory in Greek mythology. And it is she who is invoked again and again by means of associative images, in which the harmonizing element of water plays a key role. This does not, however, detract from the urgency of the images of foreigners in a foreign land, burdened by feelings of alienation, subjection, and endless drudgery in authoritarian white society. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)