The Retreat | 2023
16mm film transferred to 4k video, 22 min, sound, color
Languages: English, Spanish, Arabic
Countries of Production: UK, France, US
shot during the Exile Retreat with
Sarah Zeryab
Golrokh Nafisi
Juan Urbina
Olia Sosnovskayai
Matti Sutcliffe
Camera, Editing and Color: Gelare Khoshgozaran
Costume & Fabrication: Golrokh Nafisi
Sound Recording & Additional Camera: Matti Sutcliffe
Sound Design and Mixing: Paul Cousins
Opening Chapter Voice-over: Valentina Alvarado Matos
Opening Chapter Text: excerpts from La invención de Morel, Adolfo Bioy Casares (adapted from the English translation by Ruth L.C. Simms)
16mm film processing & 4k scanning: DeJonghe Film Postproduction, Pro 8mm
Thanks to Andre Keichian, Ghazal Khezri, Reza Monahan, TJ Shin, Aryana Polat, Lainey Racah, Yuchi Ma, and HLS
The Exile Retreat was conceived as an in-person convening and an extension of the Exile Working Group with:
Ahmed Awadalla
Dita Hashi
samira makki
Zeyo Mann
Olia Sosnovskayai
Juan Urbina
Sarah Zeryab
The project was commissioned by Delfina Foundation, London, curated by Eliel Jones, and supported by Andy Warhol Foundation | LACE Lightning Fund; the Elephant Trust
As a process based film, The Retreat delves into the temporal, spatial and relational effects migratory movements have on the body and mind of the exile. The film was produced through a discursive and community-oriented process, central to which was an ‘exile retreat’ organized by the artist, with participants recruited through an international open call. The film interweaves recorded fragments from the retreat with dream-like scenes which explore the connections between exile, desire and antifascism. The international group of participants and collaborators convened for the week-long retreat in Monistrol-d'Allier in the south of France to collectively reflect on the relation between mental health and the experience of exile or seeking asylum. One of the main historical and political reference points for both the exile retreat and the film was the history of the nearby psychiatric hospital (asylum) in Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole, Lozère and the radical legacies of Catalan psychiatrist Francesc Tosquelles, to consider exile as a space for transnational solidarity.