Western 4.33

Western 4.33 is the adaptation of two stories that force themselves into the memory of a Namibian truck driver on a trip from Johannesburg (South Africa) to Luderitz (Namibia), in a largely desert-like setting. They are excruciating memories. The first one is the recent story of a lost love. It is a frequently recurring short scene - the only one in colour and slow-motion – of a young strolling African woman who is aware of being watched. The suggestion that it refers to a love affair that has ended is made by the lyrics of the songs, sang successively by Alec Empire, Macy Gray and Robert Schumann, that accompany this scene. This minor history is crosscut with a greater story, that of the Namibian Heroro people. When they revolted against the German colonial power early last century, many of them died in specially built concentration camps near Luderitz. The visualisation of this history is raw and poignant, shot in sharp black-and-white, with oblique frames and unusual camera angles. An equally impressive and ominous sound sculpture accompanies this footage. Kaganof partly reveals the fate of the Herero in words, but of course does so in an unexpected way. When the truck approaches Luderitz, we see the ruins of the barracks and officers’ quarters that served as prototypes for camps like Auschwitz, Treblinka and Majdanek.