Suleman, M.B., 2022.

How perfect is this how blessed are we

The title of this film is taken from the inscription on a bench on the top of a hill, at the highest point in the landscape of Compton Verney, designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown in his ideal vision of the British country house. By appropriating this statement of contentment as a critical tool to inquire how perfect it really is and who is the 'we' that is so blessed, I inserted my body into the landscape as a reminder of historical absences and erasure, and the legacy of colonialism and queer-phobia. The film is narrated, however, in the register of an address to an absent lover. A personal history and a lover's yearning doubles as a critique of violent and exclusive histories.