''A Low Life Mythology'' is a 2012 film directed by
Lior Shamriz
Lior Shamriz (born September 13, 1978) is a writer, producer, and film director. They reside in Santa Cruz, California.
Early Life
Shamriz was born to a Jewish-Iraqi mother and a Jewish-Iranian father in Ashkelon, a working-class city in southe ...
and starring Nina Fog and Johannes Hendrik Langer. It was written by the director with some improvisations by the cast and includes guest appearances by artists
Hito Steyerl
Hito Steyerl (born 1 January 1966) is a German filmmaker, moving image visual artist, artist, writer, and innovator of the essay documentary.Wolfgang Müller and others. The film premiered at the 2012 Achtung Berlin Film Festival.
Plot
Mana Avaris is a foreign art student from an obscure country who lives in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, Germany. According to her own testimony in the film, she is attending the school solely for the purpose of obtaining a visa. At a house party in
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Berlin-Mitte, Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in ...
, Mana runs into Asten, a young dreamy man. The story of their relationship unfolds throughout the film.
Within the film are the art works supposedly made by Mana, Asten and their social circle. They are mostly essay films but some were materialized as real performances to an unsuspecting audience, such as the full-nudity monologue by Shirley Rosenthal which was recorded live at the Barbie Deinhoff queer bar, a known establishment in Berlin.
The film deals with an imaginary world based in narrative deconstruction, in the deformation and experimentation of the figure, in the image that overflows its materiality to break down, revive and divide itself. Many historical references dealing with foreignness and multiculturalism appear in the film, in characters' names (
Avaris
Avaris (Egyptian: ḥw.t wꜥr.t, sometimes ''hut-waret''; ; ; ) was the Hyksos capital of Egypt located at the modern site of Tell el-Dab'a in the northeastern region of the Nile Delta. As the main course of the Nile migrated eastward, its po ...
being the capital of the
Hyksos
The Hyksos (; Egyptian language, Egyptian ''wikt:ḥqꜣ, ḥqꜣ(w)-wikt:ḫꜣst, ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''heqau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands"), in modern Egyptology, are the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt ( ...
in Egypt) and the films the characters present each other, such as
Nabonidus
Nabonidus (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-naʾid'', meaning "May Nabu be exalted" or "Nabu is praised") was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from 556 BC to the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenian Empire under Cyrus the Great in 53 ...
and
Cyrus
Cyrus () is a Persian-language masculine given name. It is historically best known as the name of several List of monarchs of Iran, Persian kings, most notably including Cyrus the Great, who founded the Achaemenid Empire in 550 BC. It remains wid ...
Pierre Menard
Pierre Menard (7 October 1766 – 13 June 1844) was a Canadian-American fur trader and politician who was elected the first lieutenant Governor of Illinois in 1818.
Biography
Early life
Menard was born at St. Antoine-sur-Richelieu, near Mo ...
, a fictional character from a short story by
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...
Cast
Production
The film was produced with a grant by
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
The Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg is the body responsible for Film Funding and New Media Funding in the states of Berlin and Brandenburg. It is also the first point of contact for international and German professionals active in the film and me ...
and the French art foundation Bambi. It showed at the
Thessaloniki International Film Festival
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) is a film festival held every November in Thessaloniki, Greece. It is organized by the Thessaloniki Film Festival under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture. It features internationa ...
as part of a retrospective for the director and was later nominated to the Prize of the German National Gallery for young Film Art.