Ici et ailleurs (Hier und anderswo)

In this paradigmatic essay film, images from a Palestinian ‘elsewhere’ collide with those of a French ‘here’. The production of the film, which was initially commissioned in 1969 as an agitprop work, ended after the death of its Palestinian protagonists in ‘Black September’ in 1970. Years later, Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville take a second look at their film material in Ici et ailleurs and dismantle the premises of militant cinema in the video editing suite. The commitment to the ‘Palestinian cause’ and the armed struggle of Fatah recedes into the background, while the mediality of late capitalist society as the a priori of all perception takes centre stage: ‘There are no more simple images, only simple people who will be forced to remain as still as an image,’ the commentary says at one point. (Peter Grabher)

Introduction by Peter Grabher on 14 March 2025

Photo: Austrian Film Museum