La Corde du diable

As in her previous film, Trees, Sophie Bruneau needs only one object to describe a whole world. In this case it's barbed wire that tells a parallel history of the settlement of America. What started out as a useful tool to fence in animals leads to the staking of claims and the large-scale privatisation of land and ultimately to the sealing of the Mexican border against economic refugees?
The former myth of the Wild West and the still popular phrase "God's own Country" are taken ad absurdum in the face of the forest of private property signs and the gating frenzy. After all, individualisation and industrialisation come at a price. The land has long ceased to be a landscape and turned into mere arable territory.
These facts are not devoid of a certain humour, which Sophie Bruneau brings out calmly in Devil's Rope. With gusto and a few surprising twists she depicts the origin and rich variety of this simple wire in grand tableaux. The references implied in the images to the original American movie genre, the Western, add to our enjoyment.
(Cornelia Klauß)