International Festival of Films on Art

MOMENTA Biennale de l’image is proud to partner with the International Festival of Films on Art (Le FIFA) to present Sandlines, the Story of History, the first feature film by Belgian artist Francis Alÿs, at the 39th edition of the festival from March 16 to 28, 2021.

Sandlines, the Story of History, produced in collaboration with the Ruya Foundation, was made between 2018 and 2020 near a Yezidi settlement in Iraq. The artist asked children from a village in the mountains, about 20 kilometers from Mosul, to revisit a century of their history from the Sykes-Picot agreements signed in May 1916, to the yoke of terror imposed by Daesh in 2016. The children are led to interpret, in their own way, a series of events.

Presented in its Canadian premiere on ARTS.FILM, after having been acclaimed at the Sundance Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2020, this feature film is part of a line of projects that Francis Alÿs has carried out with children around the world. The film notably echoes the artist’s exhibition, Children’s Games, presented at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal as part of MOMENTA 2019.

To learn more about Sandlines, click here.