Description
“Under a Blue Sun” tells how the Naqab Desert lands were converted into military training zones and adopted as locations for big-budget action films.
When Bashir Abu Rabiah, a 75-year-old Palestinian Bedouin artist, watches the film “Rambo III”, he sees much more than Sylvester Stallone fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan. In the 80s, he was hired to make the special effects for “Rambo III”. Today, Bashir returns to the desert film locations, where he finds material remnants, both real and fake ammunition and debris, left behind in the sand.
About the director:
Daniel Mann
London-based Israeli filmmaker and writer. Mann’s feature films such as The Birdman (2014), Future Diaries (2015), Low Tide (2017), Salarium (2017) were screened in festivals such as the Berlinale, Rotterdam, IDFA, Hong Kong and Cinema du Reel. Combining found footage with on-location filmmaking, Mann’s films often explore colonial imaginaries and the military occupation of land and natural resources. Mann is the author of the book “Occupying Habits”, and several other essays and peer review articles. He is currently a fellow at the Centre of Humanities and Social Sciences at Queen Mary University of London. He obtained his PhD from the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths.