altogether

“The future is dark, which is, on the whole, the best thing the future can be, I think.” With this observation as a starting-point, Altogether fully acknowledges the ideological impasse of the post 68-era. The symbolic presence of flags and historical buildings, and of maintaining (national) capitals as such has become arguable; projected into the (near) future, they appear in a most uncertain light, and the cinematographic language underlines this: fragmented and associative, shot in black and white, the video shows sketchy images of urban scenery, some of them shot with a moving cellphone camera on a car ride through Brussels. But what we actually see is a shadowy abstraction of a city which gives the impression of a negative space whose virtual character is no longer theorised using a voice-over, but can be found in the image itself. There is no speech, only sound. Approaching its climax, the film advances towards the collapse of the visible, leaving the viewer “locked in” the current situation: fully aware of the (uncertain) future to come, wondering whether he or she will be capable of exerting any influence on it.