Nina Menkes’s THE BLOODY CHILD uses a fractured narrative and ambiguous characters to tell the story of a brutal murder
THE BLOODY CHILD (Nina Menkes, 1996)
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
March 9, 9:00; March 11, 7:00; March 15, 7:00
212-505-5181
www.anthologyfilmarchives.org
www.ninamenkes.com
Inspired by an actual event that took place during the first Gulf War, Nina Menkes’s The Bloody Child is a visually captivating abstract tale of murder. Shot in the 29 Palms area of the Mojave Desert, the film is essentially told backward in three distinct sections. In one, a group of Marine officers have discovered a dead woman in the back of a car. It’s a crystal-clear beautiful day as they come and go, discussing the situation in dialogue that is often hard to make out. In another, people are having a good time in a dark bar, the men shooting pool, the women being entertained by a male stripper. And in the third, an ash-covered angelic figure lies naked in a forest, carving a prayer in Hebrew on her arm as the witches’ chant from Macbeth is repeated on the soundtrack. Despite its abstract, fractured narrative and ambiguous, unidentified characters, The Bloody Child is an atmospheric, gripping tale. Menkes tells the story in long takes with little or no camera movement, almost as if action is secondary to mood. Casting actual Marines in the film — in addition to her sister, Tinka, who stars in most of her work and plays the Marine captain here — Menkes imbues the film with a reality that lends it a documentary feel, enhanced by gorgeous poetic moments that lift things to a higher plane. The Bloody Child is screening March 9, 11, and 15 as part of Anthology Film Archives’ weeklong Menkes retrospective that also includes such films as Dissolution (2010), The Great Sadness of Zohara (1983), Magdalena Viraga (1986), The Bloody Child (1996), and Phantom Love (2007).