Days In Between

For the essay film “Days In Between” Marianna Christofides has been recursively visiting the Balkans for the past four years, at first seeking out sites along borders lying by rivers and lakes, where the course of the boundary remains indefinite. After having lost the entire first block of footage, the data on the hard drive not being retrievable, she sets out anew, only to witness that the places do not exist anymore in the same way. Topography changes insomuch that landscapes seem to vanish and observations “antiquate”. The approach of the film extends accordingly, now focusing on loss, omissions, disappearances without trace. The spiralling vacuum of stereotypes and metaphors, the appropriation of geological terms in political parlance that characterize the gaze of the West onto the region comes to the fore. Rivers become amphibious, both solid and liquid, as they separate bank from bank whilst connecting along their course.