Sharjah Art Foundation

Sharjah Biennial 16

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
6 Febuary — 15 June 2025

Mohammadreza Vatandoust, Lotus (still), 2018. 14 min

Programme 2

All Inclusive (2018)
Director: Corina Schwingruber Ilić
Switzerland
Documentary | 10 min
No dialogue

The film takes viewers under the spell of mass entertainment on the high seas.

All That Perishes at the Edge of Land (2019)
Director: Hira Nabi
Pakistan
Documentary | 30 min
Urdu with English subtitles

In this docu-fictional work, the anthropomorphised container vessel Ocean Master enters into a dialogue with the workers at the Gadani ship-breaking yard. The conversation moves from dreams and desires to places that can be called home and the structural violence embedded in the act of dismembering a ship. Although they face death on a daily basis, the workers still look towards a better future.

Otranto (2019)
Directors: Ionian Bisai and Sotiris Tsiganos
Albania
Documentary | 25 min
Albanian with English subtitles

Katër i Radës, the first boat that sank during a naval blockade against migration flows in the Mediterranean Sea, is now a monument for global migration established by the Italian state, the same authority that ordered it to be sunk.

Relatives of the victims cross the Mediterranean Sea from Vlore, Albania, to Otranto, Italy, to examine the transformation of the shipwreck from evidence into a context-free sculpture decorating a public square in Italy.

Lotus (2018)
Director: Mohammadreza Vatandoust
Iran
Documentary | 14 min
Persian with English subtitles

In April 2010, after the construction of the Lafour Dam, Lafourak and several other villages were flooded under 80 metres of water. An old woman has waited 12 years for permission to cross Lafour Lake so she can reach an island where the last resident of Lafourak waits for her.