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37 Uses for a Dead Sheep (2006)

Director: Ben Hopkins

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From Time Out London

Ben Hopkins is responsible for one of the most delirious takes on London in recent years; his second feature, ‘The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz’ (1999) added a dose of surreal humour and German expressionism to the city experience, turning a mere ride on the Tube into a paranoiac’s nightmare. His latest film is a documentary about a tribe, the Pamir Kirghiz , who over the past century have made various, forced journeys from their original home in north-east Afghanistan and are now settled, all 2,000 of them, in a small village in rural eastern Turkey. The film may initially strike some fans of ‘Tomas Katz’ as conservative in execution, but ‘37 Uses’ betrays Hopkins’ more esoteric influences, not least Herzog, and offers an unusual and successful mix of reconstruction, history and a touch of gonzo to tell the story of a true scapegoat of Central Asia’s geopolitical shifts.

The film’s title emerges from a chat between the director and an elder member of the tribe: sitting on a bench, the pair run through the many applications of an extinct sheep. It’s one of several moments in which Hopkins and his crew are present but never overbearing. His welcome trick is to collaborate and not dictate, consider and not assume: he co-directs the film with a local, Ekber Kutlu, and the spine of the chronological narrative is a series of recreations, performed by the Pamir in period garb. It’s a method that allows for the more emotional inquiry that Hopkins seeks. One woman discusses how it’s shameful to remember her father’s fall under the influence of opium. Others talk of their dreams, whether of their distant homeland or, more prosaically, of one day opening an internet café in Istanbul.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 1891: November 15-22 2007

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