Moses

Sigmund Freud concluded his life's work with Moses and Monotheism, published in 1939. Finnish artists Jenni and Lauri Luhta bring this book to the screen as a unique verbal-visual treatise. Freud's words form the verbal framework, while the visual component relies on striking colors and frame compositions, reminiscent of (living) paintings. Moses positions itself at the intersection of academic discourse, cinema, and audiovisual installation. The images don't transition smoothly from one to another but rather grow out of each other, overlap, and create branching patterns rather than a linear narrative. The read text, combined with such visual composition, aims not only to express Freud's thoughts from his late work suggestively but also to portray Freud himself towards the end of his life. Ultimately, the frame more often features the psychoanalyst himself (played by the film's creator) rather than the subject of his study. Thus, we read Moses through Freud, and Freud through Moses. The intersection of myths, religion, ideas, and psychology, and the struggle to contemplate it, is reflected in a multidimensional image and the strong, though difficult to decipher, character of the main protagonist.