Benjamin Deboosere

An animated conversation, both literally and figuratively, based on interviews with patients and care providers at a psychosocial hospital. Later the artists asked friends and colleagues similar questions. In this short film, the artists use the 'online chat' form to address subjects like self-analysis, personality and social relations.

Davide has come to Germany to escape the depressing state of his home country, Italy. In Berlin, he takes a job putting up posters. But when the ill health of his mother confronts him with existential questions, he finds himself in a state of uncertainty and indecision. Should he keep postering forever or change his course now? Stay or move back? Order a marinara or a capricciosa?

This film is not just an adaptation of Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe. Rather, it addresses the larger cultural myth that has grown from the premise of the book: a white man ‘civilising’ indigenous inhabitants of an island, and claiming the territory as his own property. In a time today when the call to decolonise the artworld and its associated institutions has never been more urgent, Deboosere's cinematic intervention resonates with a large body of work seeking to destabilise and replace the ideology of imperialism. The result is a singular, subversive film, satirical and surprisingly charming at the same time, which makes sure to pay just as much attention to animals and the natural world as to the follies of human-constructed ‘anthropocene’ history.

It’s hard to pinpoint Basti, a wild bearded man in a pastel colored suit. Caught between memory and present, he seems determined to find back his lost love Davide, but with his wandering mind and playful nature distraction comes easily. A melancholic yet hopeful minimalist melodrama about dealing with loss.