4:3, 4K, 16mm transfer, colour, 5.1-channel sound, 52′, 2024

End Pull is a 52-min long cinematic exploration of alternate temporalities, fiction and psychoacoustic sound. It was filmed in Armenia, near the resort town of Jermuk, a place that was marked by the recent war with Azerbaijan and attempts to build a gold mine near its ancient underground water reservoirs. The film borrows its structure from Michael Snow’s 1967 ‘Wavelength’ but transports the camera to the mountains of the Caucasus. A continuous 52-minute long zoom through the valley invites the eye to scan the ancient layers of rock, minerals, and geological formations. This single zoom through differing temporalities is set to a slowly rising soundtrack creating a sensation of hypnotic continuum.

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, awakened by nearby artillery blasts and gold mine excavations. The two demons’ intimate dialogue syncopates with the rising mass of sound in a delirious and disjointed space-time composed using psychoacoustic beating patterns. The subterranean mythologies and contemporary political context superimposed over the repetitive  choreography of zooms create an entrancing and hallucinogenic cinematic rhythm.

 

Commissioned by the Lyon Biennale, Future Art Generation Prize and Viktor Pinchuk Foundation, with the additional support of Kaunas Biennale, DAAD Berlin and Mondriaan Fonds.

Concept, sound, and writing: Andrius Arutiunian
Concept development and creative producing: Bianca Oana
Director of photography: Louis Braddock Clarke
Colour grading: Julija Steponaitytė
Editing: Andrius Arutiunian, Louis Braddock Clarke, Bianca Oana
Voices: Andrius Arutiunian and Julija Steponaitytė
Reverse transfer to 16mm: Muscle Temple Lab
Sound mastering: Pranas Gudaitis