A young Filipino maid, played by Mercedes Cabral, walks enigmatically through a rippled and rust-red desert. Gradually, a series of shots begins to populate the barren, ageless landscape with signs of modern communications: electricity pylons, desert roads, and then the skyscrapers of Dubai’s new financial centre, a ‘capital city’ that resembles a setting from Blade Runner.
At night-time, advanced modernity renders the city eerily empty; human presence is signalled only by the movement of faraway vehicles and the perpetual glow emanating from the city’s buildings. The houseworker rides at the front of an automated early morning commuter train, recalling at once the futuristic transport of science fiction and the ghost train films of the early twentieth century. On her way to work for a wealthy Emirati family, she begins to tell her story, of how she came to Dubai and how she eventually made her escape.
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Isaac Julien
Emerald Portrait (Playtime), 2013
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A young Filipino maid, played by Mercedes Cabral, walks enigmatically through a rippled and rust-red desert. Gradually, a series of shots begins to populate the barren, ageless landscape with signs of modern communications: electricity pylons, desert roads, and then the skyscrapers of Dubai’s new financial centre, a ‘capital city’ that resembles a setting from Blade Runner.
At night-time, advanced modernity renders the city eerily empty; human presence is signalled only by the movement of faraway vehicles and the perpetual glow emanating from the city’s buildings. The houseworker rides at the front of an automated early morning commuter train, recalling at once the futuristic transport of science fiction and the ghost train films of the early twentieth century. On her way to work for a wealthy Emirati family, she begins to tell her story, of how she came to Dubai and how she eventually made her escape.
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