Oliver Laxe

The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers is a new feature film by award-winning British artist and filmmaker Ben Rivers (Two Years at Sea). At the heart of the film's layered narratives is an adaptation of 'A Distant Episode', the savage short story set in Morocco by American author Paul Bowles, first published in 1947. Moving between documentary, fiction and fable, The Sky Trembles... sees its protagonist, filmmaker Oliver Laxe, directing his own film in Morocco, the forthcoming Las Mimosas, before walking off set and into Rivers' narrative.

In the town of Krabi, a popular tourist destination in southern Thailand, the pre-historic, the recent past and the contemporary capitalist world awkwardly collide. The town's local folklore and histories are promoted as attractions to foreigners, while the town's traditional labour force is muted and hidden from the tourists' eyes. A nameless character, whose identity continually changes, takes us around town to explore various sites that capture Krabi in its current state. These sites uniquely illustrate how Krabi's folklore are propagated and commodified to fill the need of the tourism industry.