On the occasion of Giornata del Contemporaneo, the event organized by AMACI —the Association of Italian Museums of Contemporary Art—now in its twenty-second edition and dedicated this year to the theme “Geographies of Contemporaneity,” MACRO presents the Rome premiere of Archipelago (2017), a film by Camilla Insom and Giulio Squillacciotti, which premiered at the 35th Turin Film Festival. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.
Filmed in the Strait of Hormuz, Archipelago offers a rare glimpse into a place constantly evoked in global politics, yet almost never observed from within. Traveling through a group of Iranian islands suspended between Africa, Arabia, and Persia, the film moves through a living world where myth, music, and invisible forces continue to be part of daily life.
In this place, centuries of migration, trade, and movement have given rise to a unique syncretic culture, shaped by the presence of the Bād—spirits, or “winds,” believed to pass through bodies, disrupt lives, and require a form of negotiation. They are tamed through the ritual of the Zār, a musical exorcism in which the driving rhythm of the drums, the chants, and the collective trance evoke the invisible within the social realm. By interweaving landscapes, gestures, oral narratives, and ritual performances, Archipelago reveals an insular world rarely depicted on screen, where spiritual cosmologies persist within the fabric of contemporary life. Both a sensory journey and a political counter-image, the film offers an unexpected glimpse into Iran, beginning with one of the region’s least accessible territories.
The event will take place in the Cinema Hall.
