Appropriation (from the trilogy Lament), 2023. 6min. 19sec., three channel film, HD, color, stereo

Together with Nothing Escapes My Eyes (2015) and Kali (2017), Appropriation is the third film with Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, and together with the other two films, forms a trilogy titled Lament, which explores questions of identity, loss and historical wounds. This film is also linked to a score: Maurice Ravel’s version of the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

A performance of Ravel’s version of the Kaddish takes on a myriad of complex issues, raising numerous questions and leaving the answers purposefully open to interpretation. Oscillating between the intimate and the personal, the performative and the theatrical, the film is underlined by an electronic, drone-like musical score (by Anastasio Mitropoulos) that takes harmonies and sequences of notes directly from Ravel’s original score and adds a layer of tension and discomfort.