“Sophie Fiennes’ documentary on Anselm Kiefer, “Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow”, is released in UK cinemas this month after a showcase at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The director spent more than two years filming the artist at work in his complex at Barjac near Avignon in the south of France. Kiefer had invited Fiennes to document his final days at the immense studio-cum-installation, as he prepared to finally abandon the site before moving back to Paris. The title is borrowed from the Biblical story of Lilith, an interest of Kiefer’s, and refers to the fact that the site is now semi-derelict. With a soundtrack of disorientating, atonal music, much of it by the composer György Ligeti, the initial sequence consists of long, slow shots that linger over the immense, cavernous spaces and superficially ramshackle constructions that form much of the estate. There is no commentary, no biographical introduction and no captioning…”
Lilith is not really a story from the bible – it’s really in the “Da Vinci code” camp. Sort of an extra-biblical pastiche, only supported by a contentious translation of a Hebrew word and myths.
But then again art is a bit like that – trying to strain meaning from a few cobbled images and ideas.