This week I went even further back in time and watched the Korsakow film [7sons] by Florian Thalhofer and Mahmoud Hamdy. It documents a small tribal council community of Bedouins in Cairo centring on their decision of a local land rights case.

Once again I find myself completely absorbed in a short space of time, the film makers start with a small narrative set up and then leave the viewer to navigate through a selection of 3 videos titled by one word captions. Speaking of interface I really like the way Thalhofer and Hamdy set this one up, you have the main viewer and then as I mentioned before three other options which are displayed in black and white and also play through a small loop when moused over which I think is a nice feature. They also hold the videos back until you have viewed the intro of each video segment, another feature I like as I feel it stops the viewer from just quickly clicking from vid to vid without actually paying attention.

The music is also great, they have different tracks for each video which continue to play after the video ends. This left me catching myself just listening to the music rather than continuing to watch the videos after they ended, but maybe it was just my personal preference.

As far as the content goes there seems to be 3 relations all interconnected with the land dispute case, landscapes, life and law. The film starts with the landscapes which introduces the characters and the settings and then leaves the viewer to navigate between the other subjects. The film also contrasts the life of the Begonias to the life of the Egyptians and perhaps in a broader sense the effects of large civilisation on the tribe.

I’m not sure if it’s the interactivity inherent of I-docs which is drawing me in so quickly or the other elements of the films themselves, I guess if I keep watching them I will find out.

You can find the film here