Stopover in Dubai (Chris Marker, France, 2011)

“When people die, they sing songs.“ (Khlebnikov) — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Stopover in Dubai is a chillingly simple – and riveting – found-footage documentary on a reconstructed murder. The original film was produced by the Dubai State Security service, edited from CCTV footage recorded in and around the Dubai hotel where Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead, his room locked from the inside. Al-Mabhoub was a founder of a military branch of Hamas, and was reportedly on Mossad’s hit list (though he had other enemies as well). The retrieved footage tracks the team of no less then 26 assassins on their way to the kill. Marker took the film as it is and replaced the news program’s generic, royalty-free, techno-lite soundtrack with a haunting, ominous string composition written by Henryk Górecki for the Kronos Quartet. × — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —