Oiseaux-Tempête’s brilliant new “Bab Sharqi” video is directed by the French duo As Human Pattern (Gregoire Orio & Gregoire Couvert), and it’s a gripping and poetic journey through Lebanon. Shot in black and white, the video combines striking landscape footage and urban scenes with gritty video of musicians performing the track.
In one of the video’s more poignant moments, two doves fly frantically around in an enclosed room struggling to find a perch before desperately clinging to the smallest vantage. Seen in light of the mass migrations caused by the Syrian crisis, say, the bird’s desperate struggle for a spot to land is powerful.
In another rousing sequence people gather at a public event, maybe a protest of some sort as we see armed police in the wings, and though a tension hangs in the air, the close-up shots of faces show people intensely engaged with the moment. And later, driving through the city crowded with apartments, we see the web of electrical wires which connect the city and we are reminded of the ingenuity and social urge that seems to prevail even under the toughest of circumstances.
Ultimately, Oiseaux-Tempête’s “Bab Sharqi” video is imbued with social tensions and the struggle for freedom, and while the black and white of these visuals often paint a bleak picture, if you watch closely the passion of the human element finds a way to shine through the cracks in Power, throughout.
You can find “Bab Sharqi” on Oiseaux-Tempête’s LP AL​-​’AN ! الآن (And your night is your shadow — a fairy​-​tale piece of land to make our dreams) out now on Sub Rosa.
