Israel

In videos that weave documentary with 3D animation, Ruth Patir confronts life’s big questions by investigating her own lived experiences. Having been diagnosed with a gene mutation that puts her at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer, Patir faced the reality that her reproductive organs were self-destructive. Serious soul searching ensued: Did she even want to be a mother? Was there a real, viable option to not have children in a society obsessed with demographics? Patir had previously examined inherited narratives by animating archaeological artefacts. In the process, she became intrigued by female figurines dating from 800–600 BCE, prevalent across the ancient Levant.
Patir harnesses these enigmatic figurines — suggestive of fertility rites and the burdens of the female body — as avatars in her wild, stirring personal odyssey. Forlorn women of a past civilization, the figurines in Motherland reach us across time, whether intact or, more often, broken, silent remnants of ancient wars and bloodshed. They evoke the enmeshed experience of womanhood, rupture and grief, an experience made all the more palpable in the face of the ravages of war tearing the region apart.