THE SKY TREMBLES AND THE EARTH IS AFRAID AND THE TWO EYES ARE NOT BROTHERS
At the heart of the film's layered narratives is an adaptation of A Distant Episode, the savage short story set in Morocco by American author Paul Bowles, first published in 1947. Moving between documentary, fiction and fable, The Sky Trembles... sees its protagonist, filmmaker Oliver Laxe, directing his own film in Morocco, Las Mimosas, before walking off set and into Rivers' narrative. The DVD also includes A Distant Episode (18 minutes), Mohammed Mrabet (18 minutes) and a video interview with Ben Rivers and Michael Morris (8 minutes). Artangel and BFI present an Artangel production in association with the Whitworth Gallery.
- Feature Running Time: 95 minutes
- Colour/PAL DVD Region: Free Feature Aspect Ratio: 16 x 9 (1:66:1)
- Sound: Stereo
- Language: English (English Subtitles: Hard of Hearing Subtitles: Audio Description)
Radio series: Harmless Poisons, Blameless Sins
Five part radio series originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4
Radio series: Harmless Poisons, Blameless Sins
Mrabet’s stories were gathered, transcribed and translated by the American novelist Paul Bowles in the 1940s, eventually published in a series of anthologies. Selecting from the collections entitled M’Hashish and Harmless Poisons Blameless Sins, Rivers embeds the tales in a mosaic of sounds from the dramatic Moroccan landscape. The selected stories were read by Youssef Kerkour over the course of four evenings on BBC Radio 4.
The series is soundtracked by Ben Rivers and Philippe Ciompi and produced by Russell Finch, Somethin’ Else, as part of Radio 4’s collaboration with Artangel to commission new works from British contemporary artists.
Episode 1: Two stories from M’Hashish, The Young Man Who Lived Alone and Two Friends And The Rain (left) is also available to listen to on Soundcloud.
You can listen to the other episodes on Soundcloud.
Episode 2: The story of Hassan And The Aghrebia
Episode 3: The Owl and The Dog
Episode 4: The Diamond and The Light
Image: Ben Rivers and Mohamed Mrabet in Morocco (2015). Photograph: Yuki Yamamoto
THE SKY TREMBLES AND THE EARTH IS AFRAID AND THE TWO EYES ARE NOT BROTHERS
It seems there was a man named Ben Tajah who went to Fez to visit his cousin. The day he came back he was walking in the Djemaa el Fna, and he saw a letter lying on the pavement. He picked it up and found that his name was written on the envelope. Inside was a paper which read: The sky trembles and the earth is afraid, and the two eyes are not brothers." Ben Tajah did not undersrand, and he was very unhappy because his name was on the envelope. — Paul Bowles, A Distant Episode
An artist book, this edition comprises extensive selection of colour film stills, production photographs by Yuki Yamamoto, and Rivers’ own preparatory drawings (maps, story boards, annotations) as well as facsimile reprints of stories by Bowles — in particular, A Distant Episode, from which the film takes its name — and extracts from his storytelling muse, Mohammed Mrabet.
- Published as part of Ben Rivers' The Two Eyes Are Not Brothers, commisioned by Artangel, the Whitworth, The University of Manchester and the BFI's Film Fund, with the support of Arts Council England
- Designed by åbäke
- Edition of 1,500, 128 pages
- Faux-leather softback
- 180 x 130mm
- ISBN: 9781902201306
Ben Rivers
Ben Rivers was selected as part of the 2013 Open call for proposals from Artangel and BBC Radio 4 which resulted in THE SKY TREMBLES AND THE EARTH IS AFRAID AND THE TWO EYES ARE NOT BROTHERS. Some of the raw footage from this film was included in The Two Eyes Are Not Brothers, an installation in studios at BBC TV Centre in London.
Ben Rivers is an award winning artist and filmmaker represented by Kate MacGarry Gallery in London. Rivers won the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize, 68th Venice Film Festival for his first feature film Two Years At Sea; the inaugural Robert Gardner Film Award, 2013; Baloise Art Prize, Art Basel 42, for Sack Barrow; Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists, 2010.
Recent solo exhibitions include: Fable, Temporary Gallery Cologne, 2014; Things, Kate MacGarry Gallery, London, 2014; Ah, Liberty! Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, 2013; Slow Action, Hepworth Wakefield, 2012; Sack Barrow, Hamburg Kunsthalle, 2012 and Hayward Gallery, London, 2011; Slow Action, Matt's Gallery, London and Gallery TPW, Toronto, 2011.
His films have screened worldwide at numerous festivals including Rotterdam Film Festival, where he twice won a Tiger Award for Short Film. His second feature film, co-directed with Ben Russell, A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness, premiered at Locarno International Film Festival, and won top prizes at CPH:DOX and Torino Film Festival. Between 1995 and 2005 he co-programmed Brighton Cinematheque. He is currently a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University.
Image: (left) Ben Rivers filming; (above) Ben Rivers with Mohammed Mrabet (both Morocco, 2014). Photographs: Yuki Yamamoto
Written and directed by Ben Rivers
Producer: Jacqui Davies
Executive producers: Michael Morris, Cressida Day, and Lizzie Francke
Co-producer: Ben Rivers
Featuring: Oliver Laxe
Director of Photography: Ben Rivers
Editors: Ben Rivers and Benjamin Mirguet
Supervising Sound Editor: Philippe Ciompi
Cast: As himself Shakib Ben Omar
Chief Bandit Ali Boumzgour
Bandits Abdelkader Bouchefra, Mohamed Bouhriri,
Aldelhadi Elbaz
Merchant Adberazak Aït El Kaïd
Oliver’s doubles Hamza Sekri, Mohamed Bohandi,
Cory Zacharia
Soldiers Azdine Ahchmi, Samir Hmidouch
Horses Nasser, Atbir, Amara, Sahar
Crew: First Assistant Director Lina Laraki
Sound Recordist Philippe Ciompi
Focus Puller / 1st AC Sarah Rollason
Stills Photographer Yuki Yamamoto
Service Producer Lamia Chraibi
Line Producer Yassin Marco Marroccu
Location Manager Jaouad El Kacimi
Second Location Manager Mourad Kamel
Casting Director Baha Choukri
Costume Designer Julie Verges
Set Designer Hassan Osfour
2nd AC Amine Boudour
Camera Trainee Tawfik Smaoui
Make-up Artists Aziz Agoujil, Imane Moulaoui
Special Effects Hassan Tibe
Fixers Braham Aït Iddar, Karim Zoubir, Hicham Chibane
Horse Wrangler Nahid Mohamed
Assistant Horse Wrangler Abderahim Ait Ben
Dog Wrangler Karim Azlag
Also featuring: Nadia Acimi, Said Agli, Badr Aït Said, Margarita Alboris, Abdelhamid Anwar, Ikram Anzouli, Hassan, Badiba, Javier Barbero, Soukayna Belghiti, Shakib Ben Omar, Samir Benayyad, Tawfik Bennani, Mohammed Bisbis, Patricia Charlin, Baha Choukri, Mounir El Bahri, Hamza El Hachimy, Amina El Halhouli, Akrame El Meziane, Foudel El Oiridi, Ahmed El Othmani, Hamid Fardjad, Santiago Fillol, Fatima Habib, Hicham Haidar, Ahmed Hammoud, Mauro Herce, Abdellatif Hwidar, Abderrahim Issoukine, Khalid Karraki, Felipe Lage, Hamid Latima, Jaouad Nani, Ilham Oujri, Mohamed Oummad, Jamal Quandil, Alejo Ramos-Sabugo Sampedro, Alvaro Redondo, Amanda Villavieja Garcia.
Post production
Re-recording Mixer Ernst Karel
Colourist Max Horton
Online Editor Matt Pamplin
Post Producer Laura Sharpley
Rushes Colourist Dan Crussell
Dolby Sound Consultant Peter Mendonca
Visual Effects Artist Marc Hutchings
Titles Design Fraser Muggeridge studio
Production Assistant Miranda Townsend
Additional Assistants Joseph Constable, Alex Borokowski
Translators Mohamed Azaanoun, Nagi Mikail,
Paula Lopez Zambrano
Production Accountant Shipleys LLP, MacIntyre Hudson LLP
Legal Services Jeremy Gawade, Lee and Thompson,
Shane Horgan, Lee and Thompson
E & O Insurance Charles Milnes & Company Ltd
Post production houses: Rushes Processing i dailies Ltd
Post Production House ONSIGHT
Re-recording Studio Art 4 Noise
Digital Imaging Peerless
35 mm Prints Cinema Printing Company
Dolby Mastering Point1Post
Production hire: Richmond Film Services, Aimimage, Four Corners
Original music by Carles Santos
“Early Hypnagog”
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe © 2015
“The” composed and performed by Nadja
Licensed by Broken Spine Productions
© Ah Syd Music 2007
FOR BFI
Director of Lottery Film Fund Ben Roberts
Head of Production Fiona Morham
Senior Development Executive Tally Garner
Production Finance Sofia Neves
Business Affairs Manager Virginia Burgess
Made with the support of
The Estate of Paul Bowles
Artangel International Circle, Special Angels and The Company of Angels
Arts Council England
BBC Radio 4
Delfina Foundation
Film and Video Umbrella
Jacqui Davies Limited
La Prod
Rouge International
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
Harvard University
The Wylie Agency
Zeitun Films
Special thanks
Oliver Laxe, Shezad Dawood, Mohammed Mrabet, Mike Ott, Cory Zacharia, Rodrigo Rey Rosa
Thanks
Craid Baldwin, Vanessa Branson, Robert Devereaux, Mati Diop, Mouad Ibno Bachir, Touria el Glaoui, Kate MacGarry, Mark Perenson, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Casbah des Arts, Agdz, John Dewhurst, WAM Consultant
'A Distant Episode' from A Distant Episode: The Selected Stories by Paul Bowles © 1988 by Paul Bowles, used with permission of the Wylie Agency LLC
THE SKY TREMBLES AND THE EARTH IS AFRAID AND THE TWO EYES ARE NOT BROTHERS by Ben Rivers uses footage generated in the production of Las Mimosas, film by Oliver Laxe, produced by Zeitun Films, Rouge International and LaProd
Image: Ben Rivers filming in Morocco. Photograph: Yuki Yamamoto
Selected Press
Stray, sunstruck images and whirring sonic accents are likely to rattle persistently in the memories even of those perplexed by their notional meaning. – Guy Lodge, Variety, 3 October 2015
Rivers throws a curveball when Laxe's director is suddenly abducted by locals and turned into a grotesque entertainment himself. Clad in a sack festooned with the lids of rusted tin cans, the director is dragged around landscapes that no longer hold any wonder for him. – Jake Cole, Slant Magazine, 18 September 2015
The film has the advantage of Rivers’ knack for mesmerizing texture, especially when it comes to the soundtrack, which is thick with magnetic scratches, analog hiss, and natural sounds. – AV Club, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club, 13 Sept, 2015
Focused, plot driven and conceptually complex. – Dan Kidner, Frieze, September 2015
Rivers’ feature is undoubtedly one of the year’s best. – Erica Balsom, Artforum, October 2015
Rivers always remains at a sneaky remove from the heart of the material, never revealing his intentions outright, which in turn gives the film take on its own, fable-like quality. – David Jenkins, Little White Lies, May 2016
Rivers has already proved himself an expert at bending documentary conventions to his will, blurring lines and drawing attention to the intrinsic artifice of his medium, but he’s really outdone himself here, taking the question of what is “real” and answering it with a few questions of his own... this movie will cut open your brainpan with a tin can lid and crawl in deep. – Dustin Krcatovich, TinyMixtapes, May 2016
Credits
THE SKY TREMBLES AND THE EARTH IS AFRAID AND THE TWO EYES ARE NOT BROTHERS has been commissioned by Artangel, the Whitworth, The University of Manchester and the BFI's Film Fund, with the support of Arts Council England.
Some sequences in this film also form part of an exhibition, The Two Eyes Are Not Brothers, co-commissioned by Artangel and the Whitworth, The University of Manchester as part of The Artangel Collection.
Artangel is generously supported by the private patronage of The Artangel International Circle, Special Angels and The Company of Angels.
