Inferno

A bird’s-eye view of São Paulo. The streets are full of beautiful people of all races wearing white tunics. The women have flowers in their hair, and the men are carrying gifts: fruit baskets, luxury objects, adorned pets. When helicopters appear in the sky carrying a menorah and the Ark of the Covenant, the crowds make for the monumental temple. There, to the sounds of the shofar, a dark-skinned priest recites the Kaddish. Religious ecstasy can be seen on the faces of the faithful. All of a sudden, there is an explosion, windows are smashed, a fire breaks out, and the scene is thick with corpses. Panicked people flee. We are witnesses to the destruction of the Third Temple. Yael Bartana, inspired by the construction of a replica of Jerusalem’s Temple of Solomon by the Brazilian Pentecostal Church, has made a film that could be called a pre-enactment, or a reconstruction of the future. Her evocative vision brings to mind both epic Romantic paintings and Technicolor scenes from Hollywood films about Ben Hur. While the action takes place in Brazil, the film still manages to deconstruct national identities, religious commonplaces, and pop-culture clichés.

Ewa Szabłowska