Evoking the Olympic marathon in Rome 1960 in which Ethiopian Abebe Bikila won Africa’s first gold medal, running barefoot and becoming a sporting legend and symbol of an Africa freeing itself from colonialism in the process, the artists have re-contextualised this amidst Rome’s controversial rationalist architecture a new race involving refugees and immigrants staking a claim to 'freedom of movement'.

Based in Berlin, Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani are visual artists and filmmakers who have been working together since 1995. From 2007 until 2010 they have been Associate Professors for Film and Media Art at Sapporo City University, Japan. Since 2015 Nina Fischer is Professor for Experimental Film and Media Art at Uninversity of the Arts, Berlin.
International art exhibitions and film festivals they have participated in include Berlinale - International Filmfestival Berlin, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Istanbul Film Festival, Sydney Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, Manifesta 4, Frankfurt, Media City Seoul Biennale, Aichi Triennale, and solo exhibitions
e.g. at Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, Museum of Contemporary Art Hiroshima, K21 - Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Maxxi Museum, Rome.

How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?
It took us three years to realise our short film. Like always, it’s a challenge.
We were funded by Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, the MAXXI - Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome and the art galleries who are representing us.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?
For us it’s a community of Cinephiles who are passionate for a borderless and international diverse aesthetic film culture, various artistic formats and positions.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?
LA JETEE by Chris Marker
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR by Alain Resnais
CHELSEA GIRLS by Andy Warhol
WOMANIN THE DUNES by Hiroshi Teshigahara
SOLARIS by Andreij Tarkovsky
L'AVVENTURA by Michelangelo Antonioni
IKIMONO NO KIROKU by Akira Kurosawa
NIHON KAIHO SENSEN: SANRIZUKA NO NATSU by Shinsuke Ogawa
TOKYO OLYMPIAD by Kon Ichikawa
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO by Raoul Peck

What is your next project?
Our current film project we are working on right now is titled APPROPRIATION TAKES YOU ON A WEIRD RIDE. It investigates the phenomenon of the so-called 'hobby indians', an escapist movement and fringe group in the former GDR grounded in historic German enthusiasm for Native Americans especially with regard to the construction of a national identity throughout the centuries up until the present day, when new right-wing groups have developed an unsettling identification with the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.