TROUBLE

UK | 2023 | 30 min

The aerial pictures from the Crawford Collection of the London University College Archaeology Institute are populated with ghostly, disturbing presences evoked by Miranda Pennell. Apparently worthless details surface from the archives of the British domination in the Middle East – clues to the hidden violence lurking in images that we have seen a thousand times in our history books. The narrator, whose voice is reminiscent of the soundscape of 1950’s and 60’s horror film, evokes the demons of Orientalism with irony and precision. It also forces us to rethink the line that separated archaeological expeditions and war actions, knowledge and violence – the result of the same colonial project. Trouble reopens never-healed scars, cracks through which the repressed of history comes back to light and throws the present into crisis. The ghosts of colonialism oblige us to watch into the black hole of history and try not to flinch under the ruthless gaze it casts on us. (m.m.)