As a documentary-fiction hybrid, Murmansk / Kirkenes engages with the contemporary situation of Europe in crisis from a political, economic and material perspective. Capturing moments from either side of Europe’s northernmost border with Russia, Murmansk / Kirkenes presents two parallel narratives, separated both geographically and politically. 

Elements of the film shot in Norway follow two Norwegian female soldiers patrolling the border outside Kirkenes. This part of the film rests solely on physical movement and observation of the border and the terrain without dialogue. The soldiers search a landscape devoid of events, looked at through a necessary paranoid gaze as they  scan for abnormalities. Though their closeness with the landscape grows throughout the film, the soldiers’ immersion in political division assimilates their bodies into state apparatus. 
The Russian element is actor-driven, focusing on the work tasks and floating relationship between two female cafe workers in Titovka. Best known for being a frontline during the Second World War, Titovka is a stopping-place situated in a sparsely populated military zone between Murmansk and Kirkenes. Dialogue revolves around personal, everyday subjects; work life and working conditions, media and representations of reality, and non-normative desire. Conversations between the women also reflect the state’s ideological control over representation and its insistence on an edited version of history.


Installations:
Presented as part of architectural installation, Psychastenia 5 2019 at Momentum10 Biennal, Moss.

Presented as 3-channel video installation at KARST, Plymouth.

Watch the shorter three part installation versions on Vimeo - you will need a password from us: