At the edge of a city growing from the desert, a man plays alone on a golf course. Another, sleepless, sends a letter from a labour camp to his wife in Kenya. A sand storm hits a construction site, and the locals hold a strange dance ceremony. Dubai, usually seen either as miracle of development or failed gimmick, here becomes a set for a visual exploration of displacement, longing and desire. In three chapters the city, the surrounding desert and their inhabitants slowly uncover some of the darker aspects of contemporary society, while the ongoing economic meltdown spells the end of an era.
Srdan Keca studied filmmaking at the Ateliers Varan and subsequently the National Film and Television School in the UK and now lives between London and Serbia. Recently his work has explored the connections between the built environment and infrastructure and the human condition, with his latest film Mirage – a visual exploration of the city of Dubai and the surrounding desert. Another strand of his work is based in the Balkans and tries to extract what is universal from the convoluted historical narratives. His former background is in physics.
After the War (2006), A Letter to Dad (2011)
