Leviathan Cycle, Episode 5: Ismael, 2018
HD video, 19'28"
Commissioned by A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam and a Canadian partnership between Fogo Island Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto and Toronto Biennial of Art. Courtesy of the artist and UBIK Productions.
Still from Leviathan Cycle, Episode 5: Ismael, 2018.
Still from Leviathan Cycle, Episode 5: Ismael, 2018.
Still from Leviathan Cycle, Episode 5: Ismael, 2018.
Leviathan Cycle is a multi-episode film series, and part of Shezad Dawood’s groundbreaking multimedia Leviathan project, exploring the intersection of climate change, migration and mental health. Each film has been crafted as a self-contained work blending fictional narrative and documentary footage, with the possibility of being endlessly reconfigured with other episodes to create distinctive storylines extending from the evolving corpus of Leviathan material.
Ben and Yasmine are taken captive aboard a gigantic cargo Ship, whose megalomaniacal captain entertains biblical pretensions. Ben is made to ‘pay his passage’, while a ghostly Yasmine stalks the empty corridors of the ship. Whales and whaling become a key subject – interrogating colonial and indigenous politics in the process.