Dirty Pictures

Hospital is an excellent place for studying ceilings–which ordinarily attract little attention. A white ceiling clearly signals that the world is well, and you not at all. But a pink ceiling–what’s more in a hotel–does not necessarily mean that life is secure. Here it even suggests just the opposite: all is fi ne for you, but the world around is collapsing. Starting with the ceiling, whose plaster slabs are sporadically shaken by jolts. As is the camera, with its lens suddenly taking itself for a vacuum cleaner. These small personal disturbances are nothing in light of the unparalleled view offered by the window: the old town of Bethlehem torn apart by the intricate path of the wall that was built between the Palestinian territories and Israel–war. Another hotel, another place: East Jerusalem. Here the shaky pink ceiling has disappeared, as has the horrible concrete wall below the balcony. But a headful of even more dreadful memories of the crossing at the checkpoint between Israel and the Territories. (Yann Lardeau)