The Garden

3 April, 2025 - 19:30
Sphinx Cinema - zaal 3
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“The film is structured like a dream allegory, in a poetic tradition, rather like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The film is a dream allegory of the author, in this case, myself. I could have put somebody else into it, but really dreams are always in the first person, though people often invent proxies. I go to sleep and go on a mental journey. Sleep can take lots of side turnings and in turnings a lot of things can happen.” (Derek Jarman)

 

In the presence of Simon Fisher Turner

The Garden

Derek Jarman
,
UK, DE
,
1990
,
digital
,
colour
,
88'

In many ways a companion piece to The Last of England, Jarman’s first feature of the 1990s is a highly personal, almost dialogue-free “dream allegory” reflecting on the hostility and violence faced by gay, queer and trans people in the aftermath of the AIDS epidemic. Drawing together a collage of scenes filmed at Jarman’s cottage in Dungeness, numerous references to classical and popular culture, and a bold retelling of the Passion of the Christ featuring a gay couple in the lead role, it is one of Jarman’s most startling meditations on mortality, loss and queer politics.