A Piece of Work

A witty and intelligent meta-film in which the Danish-Turkish artist uses a performative re-enactment of the filming of one of his earlier films to illuminate the artistic process from new angles.

Five years ago, Danish-Turkish artist Deniz Eroglu made the short film ‘A Vacation’ in Turkey about a friend’s prison stay, with the help of friends and family. This new and independent work – which is equal parts comedy, sociological field study and artistic self-criticism – is a performative reenactment of the process of shooting the first film. A making-of (or rather ‘un-making’ of) which, with the artist and his father in the roles of themselves, ironises over the many practical problems associated with making a film. But also about the cultural clashes between the artist and the locals in the small mountain village where filming takes place. The film-within-a-film revolves around Huseyin, who starred in the original film and had just been released from prison, and who is our perpetually unfortunate anti-hero in this sequel. Both films are based on real events, with the difference that the camera in the black-and-white ‘A Piece of Work’ turns out to be a wooden sculpture: a totem around which all kinds of small and large dramas unfold.