4:3, colour, sound, 52 min, 2024

“End Pull” examines the relationship between history, deep time, and repetition. Shot in the ancient riverbed near the hydro town of Jermuk, Armenia, the film acts as a homage to Michael Snow’s 1967 film “Wavelength”. In tune to Snow’s film, the camera’s perpetual zoom allows it to scan layers of rocks, minerals, and geological formations set to a slowly rising soundtrack. The cinematic movement across the canyon creates a hypnotic sensation through an endless cut into the time of the mountains themselves.

The film is accompanied by two off-screen voices – the ancient Armenian-Zoroastrian demons by the names of Hārut and Mārut. These two demons are bound with water, plants, infinity and renewal in various religious traditions, and are widely known for inventing fiction, magic, and the distillation of intoxicating substances, such as alcohol and perfume. In “End Pull”, Hārut and Mārut find themselves in a time where they do not belong, awoken by nearby artillery blasts and gold mine excavations. The intimate dialogue of the two demons syncopates with the rising mass of sound into a delirious and disjointed space-time, composed utilising psychoacoustic beating patterns. The subterranean shifts and contemporary political context superimposed over the repetitive camera pull create an entrancing and hallucinogenic cinematic rhythm.

Commissioned by Lyon Biennale, Viktor Pinchuk Foundation and Kaunas Biennale, with the additional support of Mondriaan Fonds and Stimuleringsfonds NL.