Assaf Gruber
Miraculous Accident (2024)
Trailer
Courtesy of the artist
Assaf Gruber’s newly commissioned film tackles the timely topic of “the enemy” in Europe—between the Arab and the Jew—from a Cold War, Eastern perspective. It imagines a potential microhistory at the Łódź Film School in 1968. That year, North African students were invited to attend film academies across the Soviet Bloc. Concurrently, following the 1968 political crisis in Poland, Jewish teachers and thinkers were forced into exile.
Miraculous Accident tells the story of Nadir, a twenty-five-year-old Moroccan student who arrives in Łódź. There, he is taught editing by Edyta, a Jewish woman in her forties, with whom he falls in love. In 2024, Nadir returns to the school to create his final film about his relationship with Edyta, who has since passed away. The plot is inspired by the life of renowned Moroccan poet and filmmaker Abdelkader Lagtaâ (born 1948), who plays Nadir. Interweaving actual student films from the 1960s and 1970s by Lagtaâ and his peers, the narrative merges past and present.
Assaf Gruber (1980, Jerusalem, Israel) is a visual artist and filmmaker. His practice focuses on the dynamic relationship between individuals and institutions. He has had solo exhibitions at the Berlinische Galerie / Museum für Moderne Kunst (2018) and the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (2018), among others. His films have been shown at festivals such as the FID Marseille (2022) and the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2023). In 2022–23, he was a fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Funding Program. Gruber lives in Berlin.
Commissioned by steirischer herbst ’24
Produced by steirischer herbst ’24, CASKFILMS, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)
Artistic research commissioned by Berlin Artistic Research Programme
With the kind support of Artis
Education event
21.9., 10:00
Exhibition tour with Assaf Gruber and Jan Peter Hammer
4K video, stereo sound, 30 min.
Commissioned by steirischer herbst ’24
Produced by steirischer herbst ’24, CASKFILMS, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)
Artistic research commissioned by Berlin Artistic Research Programme
With the kind support of Artis
Education event
21.9., 10:00
Exhibition tour with Assaf Gruber and Jan Peter Hammer
