Babeldom, a film by Paul Bush

Released on 8 March, Babeldom is Paul Bush’s first full feature film. Starring Youla Boudali and Mark Caven the film was part of the Official Selection for the Rotterdam International Film Festival and Sao Paulo International Film Festival. Built around a city, with the same name as the film, in which the past and the future were united with the present, Babeldom is so massive and growing at such a speed that soon, it is said, light itself will not escape its gravitational pull. How can two lovers communicate, one from inside the city and one outside?

The film begins with an archaeologist stating: “The past is here, under our feet, we can’t retrieve it, but we walk over it every day of our lives, until we die and become a part of other people’s past.” Around this theme, Bush presents an elegy to urban life through experimental animations. Against the backdrop of a city of the future, a portrait is assembled from film shot in modern cities all around the world and collected from the most recent research in science, technology and architecture.

Within the film is animated data visualisation from recent science that show the latest results in the research of nanotechnology which offer a counterpoint to the poetic representation of the city, in the past and the present. Referencing the Tower of Babel, the film uses images from some of the largest cities in the world, including London, Dubai, Berlin, Shanghai, Barcelona and Osaka. These reference points build up a conceptual idea of the modern metropolis, a poetic narrative which is rooted in its almost mythological beginnings.

Paul Bush: Badeldom, 8 March, Independent Cinema Office, more info at www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk

Credit
Courtesy of Paul Bush, ICO and Vimeo.