Stereoscope

The films of William Kentridge are made through the stop-motion capture of drawings that are sketched, erased, and sketched again, over and over, as the featured narrative progresses. Stereoscope focuses on the story of Soho Eckstein, a businessman living in post-apartheid South Africa, as he navigates both his personal life and his business in the wake of a horrifying past. The film shows the direct impact of South Africa’s present condition on Soho’s actions, while also implying the character’s complicity in all that occurs. Vectors of action and history change the images of the film, literally connecting the narrative threads through drawn lines that extend from one frame to the next. Stereoscope portrays the complex and terrible story of apartheid through a single man, using his life as a window into a political and racial past far larger than the character himself.