The Nine Muses
Director: John Akomfrah
As flags of imperial pomp are unfurled this weekend to mark Queen Elizabeth's 60 years on the British throne, little is being said about how she's also the sovereign who witnessed the decolonisation of her empire and how, subsequently, her subjects in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean 'came home' to her.
The DVD release of John Akomfrah's The Nine Muses provides timely viewing about this aspect of the era, as the Accra-born but London-bred filmmaker reflects on the alien/alienated, immigrant experience as felt by the many who travelled to 'the mother country' just as colonialists withdrew from their outposts around the globe.
A member of the now-defunct Black Audio Film Collective, Akomfrah has examined the identity issues confronting the black diaspora in the past two decades. His films are a mixture of surrealism and cine-essays underlined by contemplative, melancholic undertones.
The Nine Muses tackles the black British experience with a blend of four elements: archival footage of emigres arriving in Britain and their lives in the new land; newly shot scenes of one or two men, dressed in hooded, colourful jackets, in harsh, snow-covered landscapes; off-screen readings (by actors ranging from Derek Jacobi to Michael Sheen) of classics such as Odyssey and The Waste Land; and a multiculturally influenced soundtrack (by Trevor Mathison, Akomfrah's Black Audio colleague) which comprises, among others, Arvo Part, Indian music and bleeping electro.
While The Nine Muses uses Greek mythology to reflect on the past and the origins of a people - a story of lives ruined or rebuilt, hopes fulfilled or dashed, and the desire to find one's place in the here and now - Akomfrah's film can easily be seen as sci-fi: The Nine Muses is a postcard from the future, with those lone aliens looking for traces of past torment in a post-apocalyptic world.