SIRENS

Monolithic power plants; billowing columns of smoke; the backdrop of a red sun. Sirens is an experimental short documentary that captures Germany’s coal-fired power plants in their final years of generating energy. Shot entirely from helicopters, the film takes us on a journey through industrial wastelands, thus recalling the passage of Ulysses’ boat through the Sirens’ strait. An odyssey through dystopian landscapes that are leaving permanent marks on earth’s ecosphere.

“Sirens is a continuation of my artistic research on documenting architecture and landscapes employed in the construction of narratives. The film is a poetic attempt to reinterpret myth in our modern times. Aerial imagery of Germany’s industrial wastelands and their mesmerizing smoke and steam emissions show how the world dies in front of the lenses. As Sirens in Greek mythology, who lured sailors to destruction by the sweetness of their song, mastodons of smoke are seen as an embodiment of the ideals of industrial revolution, the age in which the promise of better living standards lurked humanity to depletion of natural resources, air and water pollution. The term “siren” is used both in ancient mythology and in con- temporary language, to describe something that is simultaneously dangerous and fascinating. Such an aesthetic experience is also referred to as sublime, which has gradually shifted from nature to technology, having the sense of awe and terror been transferred to factories, war machines and wastelands. While technology is an expression of the grandeur of the human intellect, we expe- rience it more and more as a force that controls and threatens us. Technologies such as power stations and factories reflect our hope for the benefits they may bring as well as our fear of their uncontrollable, destructive potentials. Industrial landscapes are potent expressions of the unsustainable practices of the global economy and hold the potential for the sublime experience”.

DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY: Ilaria Di Carlo. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Francisco Mece. FILM EDITING: Sofia Angelina Machado. MUSIC: Demetrio Catellucci. SOUND: Ricardo Murga. PRODUCER: Sophie Ahrens. PRODUCTION: Schuldenberg Films. CO-PRODUCTION: Paradies, L.H.O.O.Q. Films.