This film is part of Free

The Exile

Like plants, people can either thrive or wither when removed from their native soil, as this short film explores.

1981 3 mins

Overview

Gazing out at her garden, a woman recounts the tale of an exile from Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship, who settled in Felixstowe on England’s east coast but found the grey skies and suburban sterility a poor substitute for his homeland of Chile. This film has long been attributed to Peter Greenaway but although it bears some of his hallmarks (the static camera, geographical references) there is nothing to link him to it, and the director remains a mystery.

However, it was almost certainly shot by cinematographer Curtis Clark with the aim of testing a new Kodak Super-16mm film stock for the upcoming production of Greenaway’s debut feature The Draughtsman’s Contract.