Promised Lands profiles cinematic and geopolitical relationships throughout the Indian subcontinent (Bangladesh, India, Kashmir, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) and across to West Asia and the Middle East (including Afghanistan, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Turkey). In the context of the Asia Pacific Triennial, which seeks to question the cultural and geographical frameworks of the Asia Pacific region, Promised Lands opens up a deeper conversation with West Asia and the Middle East. This discussion underlines the need for a more specific awareness of distinct histories and genealogies within these regions, while also acknowledging interactions and shared influences across borders. Through the process of bringing political geographies and histories into question, the opportunity arises to reflect on how the region's complex and diverse cultures and artistic practices contribute to new and more nuanced understandings of "Asia."

Promised Lands includes five programs of film and video that consider local politics and individual lives within a larger context. Each program has an autonomous curatorial framework: responses to civil war in Sri Lanka (The Road to Jaffna) the legacies of partition across the Indian subcontinent (Cinema of Partition); dissent and the affirmation of cultural identity in a climate of political intervention in West Asia, as well as the fraught nexus of religious fundamentalism and national politics (The Tree of Life); the traumatic histories linking Armenia and Turkey (Return of the Poet); and fault lines throughout the Middle East in response to conflict and territorial incursions in Palestine, Lebanon, and Israel (Eating My Heart). Several broad themes appear across these strands, in particular the intersection of daily life with relationships to land, religious affiliations, and cultural histories.

While political and colonial legacies have divided land and communities, Promised Lands points to the aspirations of artists and filmmakers to reframe these struggles and find a path forward. Promised Lands looks to artists and filmmakers who find opportunities to rethink the past and imagine the future. Their work draws on the historical roots of contemporary experience, bringing the past to life in the present to transform our understanding of then and now. The program brings together works that project possibilities for change and explore the hopes of exiled and dispossessed communities to return to, or create, a homeland. The artists and filmmakers featured in Promised Lands provide extraordinary insights into complex contemporary situations, and work in myriad ways to counter the insidious effects of cultural homogenisation. Their individual narratives offer a depth of understanding rarely available in official histories and suggest new possibilities for relationships and understanding. The past and present in the first person take discussions of the future out of the realm of rhetoric and into a shared framework of responsibility.

Featured Works:

Chinnamul (Nemai Ghosh, 1950); Meghe Dhaka Tara (Ritwik Ghatak, 1960); Menq (Artavazd Pelechian, 1960); Komal Gandhar (Ritwik Ghatak, 1961); Subarnarekha (Ritwik Ghatak, 1965); Sayat Nova aka The Colour of Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov, 1968); Obibateli (Artavazd Pelechian, 1970); Tarva Yeghanaknere aka Vremena goda (Artavazd Pelechian, 1972); Garm Hava (Ms Sathyu, 1973); Tamas (Govind Nihalani, 1986); Verj (Artavazd Pelechian, 1993-94); Girl from Moush (Gariné Torossian, 1994); Al-Shrit Bikyahr (Akram Zaatari, 1997); A Season Outside (Amar Kanwar, 1997); Pura handa Kaluwara (Prasanna Vithanage, 1997); Earth (Deepa Mehta, 1998); Djomeh (Hassan Yektapanah, 2000); Me mage sandai (Asoka Handagama, 2000); Takh té siah (Samira Makhmalbaf, 2000); Shou Bhabbak (Akram Zaatari, 2001); The Land of Silence (Vimukthi Jayasundara, 2001); Ararat (Atom Egoyan, 2002); Matir Monia (Tareque Masud, 2002); Yadon ilaheyya (Elia Suleiman, 2002); Ira Madiyama (Prasanna Vithanage, 2003); Khamosh Pani (Sabiha Sumar, 2003); Osama (Siddiq Barmak, 2003); Talaye sorkh (Jafa Panahi, 2003); Way Back Home (Supriyo Sen, 2003); Crossing the Lines: Kashmir, Pakistan, India (Pervez Hoodbhoy, 2004); Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand (Bahman Ghobadi, 2004); Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel (Eyal Sivan & Michel Khleifi, 2004); Nekam Achat Mishtey Eynay (Avi Mograbi, 2005); Oyun (Pelin Esmer, 2005); Paradise Now (Hany Abu-Assad, 2005); Sulanga Enu Pinisa (Vimukthi Jayasundara, 2005, pictured); A Declaration (Yael Bartana, 2006); Al-sateh (Kamal Aljafari, 2006); Beş Vakit (Reha Erdem, 2006); Beyond Partition (Lalit Mohan Joshi, 2006); Happy Days (Larissa Sansour, 2006); In Search of a Road (Dharmasena Pathiraja, 2006); Poeti veradardze (Harutyun Khachatryan, 2006); Soup over Bethlehem (Larissa Sansour, 2006); 33 Yaoum (Mai Masri, 2007); A Jihad for Love (Parvez Sharma, 2007); Buda as sharm foru rikht (Hana Makmalbaf, 2007); Ea' Adat Khalk (Mahmoud al Massad, 2007); Jashn-e-Azadi (Sanjay Kak, 2007); Khiam 2000 (Joana Hadjithomas, 2007); Land Confiscation Order 06/24/T (Larissa Sansour, 2007); Min datter terroristen (Beate Arnestad & Morten Daae, 2007); Nights and Days (Lamia Joreige, 2007); Stone Time Touch (Gariné Torossian, 2007); Summer Camp 2007 (Yael Bartana, 2007); The Sky Below (Sarah Singh, 2007); A Space Exodus (Larissa Sansour, 2008); Baddi Chouf (Joana Hadjithomas, 2008); Langue sacrée, langue parlée (Nurith Aviv, 2008); Life after the Fall (Kasim Abid, 2008); Mesopotamia (Fenar Ahmad, 2008); Milh Hadha al-Bahr (Annemarie Jacir, 2008); Tabiaah Samitah (Akram Zaatari, 2008); Tahaan: A Boy with a Grenade (Santosh Sivan, 2008); The Queen and I (Nahid Persson Sarvestani, 2008);  Vals Im Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008); Z32 (Avi Mograbi, 2008); Ahasin Wetei (Vimukthi Jayasundara, 2009); Al Zaman Al Baqi (Elia Suleiman, 2009); Carmel (Amos Gitaï, 2009); Chou am bi sir? (Jocelyne Saab, 2009); Darbareye Elly (Asghar Farhadi, 2009); Güneşi Gördüm (Mahsun Kırmızıgül, 2009); Port of Memory (Kamal Aljafari, 2009); Rachel (Simone Bitton, 2009); Ruzhaye sabz (Hana Makmalbaf, 2009); Sahman (Harutyun Khachatryan, 2009); Sirta la Gal ba (Shahram Alidi, 2009)

Program information:

Promised Lands

The art of animation in Iran today draws on the artistic heritage of textile design, Persian folk tales and literature, calligraphy and miniature painting, as well as the motifs of interior design, ceramics and architecture. Animation is recognised in Iran as a medium which is closely related to drawing, painting and the graphic arts. This landmark program profiles influential senior figures, including Esfandiar Ahmadieh, Abdollah Alimorad, Vadjollah Fard Moghadam, Ali Akbar Sadeghi and Noureddin Zarrinkelk, through to the current generation of talented emerging artists, including Morteza Ahadi, Laleh Khorramian, Omid Khoshnazar, Mashallah Mohammadi, Moin Samadi, Farkhondeh Torabi, and others.

Many animations in The Cypress and the Crow: 50 Years of Iranian Animation feature animal figures-the crow, mouse, fox, goat, and many more-which have literary and symbolic associations, and may be alter-egos for humanity. The crow appears frequently in literature and animation as an animal which exhibits the baser human traits-selfishness, suspicion and greed-but is also crafty and intelligent. The cypress, sacred in Iran, is associated with the tree of life. In the Islamic tradition, the tree of life is found in heaven and harbours brightly coloured birds, representing the souls of the faithful; it may also represent the human body and aspirations to the divine. Infinitely varied in their reworking of cultural forms, animations from Iran express historical lineages and geographical relationships to create extraordinary visual worlds and produce new identities and forms.

Featured Works:

More than 100 films

Program information:

The Cypress and the Crow: 50 Years of Iranian Animation

The films of Rithy Panh center on life in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia and the struggle to reconcile the country's traumatic history with contemporary urban and rural experiences. Panh and his family experienced the mass evacuation of Phnom Penh in 1975, witnessing family members die from exhaustion and starvation in a remote Cambodian labour camp before fleeing to a refugee camp in Thailand. Working across documentary and dramatic features, Panh's filmmaking practice explores individual and collective stories that give an emotional and material texture to the history and experiences of the Cambodian people. Panh migrated to France and in his early 20s and studied filmmaking at the prestigious Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies) in Paris. He returned to Cambodia in 1990 and established Bophana: Audio Visual Resource Centre in Phnom Penh, which aims to preserve and develop Cambodia's film, photography, and audio heritage.

Featured Works:

Site 2 aux abords des frontières (Rithy Panh, 1989); Neak Sre (Rithy Panh, 1994); Bophana: une tragédie cambodgienne (Rithy Panh, 1996); Un soir après la guerre (Rithy Panh, 1998); La Terre des âmes errantes (Rithy Panh, 1999); Les Gens d'Angkor (Rithy Panh, 2003); S-21, la machine de mort Khmère rouge (Rithy Panh, 2003); Les Artistes du Théâtre Brûlé (Rithy Panh, 2005); Le papier ne peut pas envelopper la braise (Rithy Panh, 2007); Un barrage contre le Pacifique (Rithy Panh, 2008, pictured)  

Program information:

Rithy Panh