NIKOLAJ BENDIX SKYUM LARSEN
Quicksand (2017), HD video, 5.1 surround sound, 21 minutes
‘Quicksand’ tells the story of Jason, a man fighting for his life in the Mediterranean Sea. The film amplifies tendencies within present day Europe and sets it in the near future in a hostile environment where the manufacturing industry is long gone, job security is a thing of the past, and people are competing for work that is poorly paid and on a casual basis. The economy has imploded, hospitals and state schools are closing, trains rarely run. Politically, the far right has become increasingly influential, taking advantage of people’s frustrations to stoke resentment against immigrants. EU has collapsed and throughout Europe, borders have closed. It is against this backdrop that Jason, a husband and father has decided to join the exodus of people who pay people smugglers to help them leave Europe in the hope of starting a new life ‘somewhere else’. Jason’s journey ends when the boat he is in capsizes and he and many other European migrants are struggling to survive.