Emperial War museum visit – Comments on Ori Gersht’s exhibition “This Storm Is What We Call Progress” and short Movie ‘The Evaders’

The exhibition consisted of a series of pictures and two short movies. Even though Ori’s pictures were the reason that attracted wide attention to his show it was the first of the two movies that initially captivated my attention. The film was called Evaders and described as “a poetic exploration of the Lister Route, a path through the Pyreness, which was used by many to escape the Nazi occupied France”. What was unusual about this screening was that it was done through a dual projection (close up portraits matched with slowly moving landscape shots). For me it immediately came across as not only an exploration of the trauma and mental being of the escapees, but also their inner most landscapes. As the story goes, the subject after taking the strenuous path towards his liberation tragically committed suicide shortly after reaching Spain, thinking that the Nazi’s are going to occupy the country in the upcoming days, which in turn never happened. The path he took to find his liberation eventually led him to his demise. The film ends with a mystic scene of him walking through a narrow corridor and vanishing into a bright light. Such religious and spiritual motives can be seen throughout Gersht’s work. The movie certainly complement the series quite well and in my opinion could even stand on its own as a great piece of cinematic exploration into a man’s innermost being. Below I've posted a video of Ori Gersht talking about his work and this particular film.