The Birth of a Nation

Authentically 'New' German Cinema, and, simultaneously, an archaeology of narrative film itself, Wyborny's avant-garde landmark defines cinema as a 'nation' that has perversely acquired rulers, laws and hierarchies before it has even been physically mapped out. At first appearing to spin an elementary yarn of social organisation (the predictably fraught establishment of a rudimentary commune in the Moroccan desert of 1911) in the 'authoritative' film language of DW Griffith, Wyborny proceeds to break down that language to its constituent elements and produce fragmentary hints of alternatives. Structural film-making of a rare wit and accessibility results, with flashes of appropriate absurdity (like the sudden intrusion of Randy Newman's 'Lonely at the Top') highlighting the redundancy of closed systems, whether social or cinematic.