Presented in a world preview and especially produced for the Hangar Bicocca, as part of the vaster Vulnerable Lands project, End (edited by Andrea Lissoni) is a video installation of all the audio-visual material collected by Casas during the production of the trilogy.
“I was interested in living in these lands and trying to capture those life styles which are disappearing. I was interested in the collective imaginary of these places and their mythical sense of the end of the world”, explains Casas.
Winner of the Best Documentary at the 2004 Torino Film Festival, the first episode Aral: Fishing in an Invisible Sea is a remarkable story about the lives of three generations of fishermen on the Aral Sea, in the heart of Central Asia. One of the largest ecological disasters on earth, it used to be the largest saltwater lake in the world but is turning into an immense expanse of sand.
Solitude at the End of the World is a film on his research in Patagonia, where men live months on end in solitude and total isolation in one of the world’s most hostile environments. The film trilogy, dedicated to the environmental conditions of our planet, ended with the latest project on Chukotka, Siberia, the northernmost part of Russia, which is threatened by projects for large industrial installations. Hunters since the Beginning of Time records a community of whale hunters and their battle for survival and to preserve millenary traditions and rituals. Casas is currently working on a film on the elephant cemetery on the border between India and Nepal. ES