Keren Cytter
French Film, 2002

11 min 50 sec, digital video, color/sound, Ed of 4+2AP

Cytter uses language as a way of illustrating disengagement or misunderstanding, so often the basis of problems in personal relationships. In French Film (2002), while all the images depict scenes from the character’s life in Israel, the narrative is entirely in French: the protagonist is a Tel Aviv native, describing what he’ll miss when he moves to Paris (paralleling Cytter’s own relocation from Tel Aviv to Amsterdam). His use of the language of his soon-to-be adopted country signals his initial psychological distancing from his homeland.