Insomniac City (Version3, Mille Plateaux 127)

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• published: 10 Mar 2017
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A FILM BY RAN SLAVIN Written directed and produced by Ran Slavin A man with a bullet wound wakes up with memory disorders in an underground parking lot in Tel Aviv. As he struggles to recall recent events, a woman wakes up in a Shanghai hotel from a similar dream. A fragmented conversation with a pet shop owner on the phone sets off an abstract mystery in Tel Aviv and Shanghai. Insomniac City has been initially commissioned for the Venice Biennial of Architecture in 2004. It is a cinematic project that from its inauguration has set out to be worked in continuous stages. In 2006 additional shooting was made and the film was re-edited as well as in 2009 and consequently resulted in a long length film release. “Ran Slavin’s The Insomniac City Cycles work vacillates between reality and the imagination, wakefulness and sleep, and creates an affinity between the psyche and the urban sphere. The film’s fragmented, frenetic and haunted urban topography may be likened to a map of the human soul. The emotional condition of this work’s protagonist, which makes it impossible for him to escape into the realm of sleep, represents an existential state. Paradoxically, this state of continuous wakefulness resembles a dream, or rather a nightmare, in which it is impossible to tell the difference between truth and fiction. When he wakes up in a parking lot with a bullet wound in his shoulder, he cannot remember how he got there, where his pistol is, and whether he is the victim or the murderer. The few instances in which he manages to recall moments from the past involve images of southern Tel Aviv as seen from the ground.” – Sergio Edelsztein, head of the CCA Tel Aviv. Cast: Irad Mazliah Cinematography: Ran Slavin Sound mix; Itzik Cohen Sound design mix; Ran Slavin & Itzik Cohen Sound editors; Itzik Cohen, Omri levy, Ran Slavin Sound Facility: Jungle Sound Studios, Tel Aviv Thanks: The Rabinovich Foundation for the arts – Cinema Project, Israel Lottery Council for the Arts, Sheraton Tel Aviv, Giora Einy, Alon Garbuz, Yoav Abramovich, Yoav Barkai, Danny Spaer, Daniel Shabtai Milo, Itzik Cohen, Omri Levi, Irad Mazliah, Avi Banon, Shiri Slavin, Sigal Barnir, Yael Moria, Rei Elbaz, On Air, Michal Shalit, Keren Arnaldes, Bernd Lennartz, Achim Szepanski, Itai Meir, Shablul pet shop, Shlomit Slavin. Special thanks to Daniel Shabtai Milo, Monika Bielskyte