Two unknown men speak on the phone. They discuss their involvements in military operations in eastern Ukraine, accompanied by images of a chaotic stroll through a nightly forest. A plane passes through the moonlit night sky, and a voice recites a poem by Anna Akhmatova, while a woman, in near darkness, gazes into the mirror of her computer screen. Then, she looks at us.
Metahaven’s The Sprawl (Propaganda about Propaganda) is about “the global proliferation of the phantom language of power […]" The film "gets inside this language, […] as formaldehyde to immerse and store its tropes.” (Prostory, Ukraine)
The Sprawl is Metahaven’s feature debut film. Together with master cinematographer Remko Schnorr and electronic musician Kuedo, they create a multi-layered visual world for the internet’s geopolitical agitprop.
“The Sprawl is an unbroken digital scream.” (International Film Festival Rotterdam)
Network Effects screening & talk programme at Kino Regina, November 27 at 7 PM. Tickets and more information (in Finnish).