Commissions

Wayfaring Stranger
Andrea Luka Zimmerman

Wayfaring Stranger is a mesmerizing yet haunting journey through our relationship with ourselves and the world we live in.

Marc van de Klashorst
icsfilm.org
February 3, 2024


Wayfaring Stranger charts the life of an itinerant character, embodied by seven per formers, across seven days, representing seven decades. Running from the city, through post-industrial edge lands and manicured enclaves, they find themselves in forests, farms, mountains and the shore. Along the way, they undergo a transformation, through the seasons and changing geography, both physically and emotionally, from youth to elderhood, and from a single, alienated being into an accepted element of the wider world. Each ‘day ’ is a ‘station’ that signifies a turning point in a character’s emotional development : from escape, through loss, grief and waywardness, to solidarity and co-existence.

Filmed in landscapes marked by centuries of ceaseless, often destructive, human interaction, Wayfaring Stranger asks what it takes to find a liveable life on one’s own terms and without conflict with others and the environment.

 

Wayfaring Stranger had its world premiere at the IFF Rotterdam on 25 January 2024.

With text written and performed by acclaimed writer and poet Eileen Myles, and sound design by multi-award-winning sound recordist Chris Watson.

The performers:

Eileen Myles
Eirini Ampatzi Ippikoglou
Michiko Oki
Moon Nanook Guo-Barker
Mwiinga Twyman
Therese Henningsen
Xiaolu Guo

With a special performance from Tizzy-Rose, Callum Hickey, Ash & Ella

Written by Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Gareth Evans
Directed and filmed by Andrea Luka Zimmerman
Produced by Marta Michalowska and Thomas Zanon-Larcher
Co-Produced by Andrea Luka Zimmerman
Edited by Taina Galis and Andrea Luka Zimmerman
Sound design by Chris Watson
With music by Balamuc and Fern Maddie

Title song ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ performed by Fern Maddie

Commissioned and funded by The Wapping Project.

Andrea Luka Zimmerman is a Jarman Award-winning artist, filmmaker and cultural activist whose multi-layered practice calls for a profound reimagining of the relationship between people, place and ecology.

Andrea’s films include: Here for Life (2019), produced by Artangel, which premiered in the Cineasti Del Presente International Competition of the Locarno Film Festival (winning a Special Mention); Erase and Forget  (2017), which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival (nominated for the Original Documentary Award); and Estate, a Reverie (2015), nominated for Best Newcomer Award at the Grierson Awards.

Andrea’s works have been shown in exhibitions including Art Class at METAL and LUX, Shelter in Place at Estuary Festival, Civil Rites at the London Open, Whitechapel Gallery, Common Ground at Spike Island, Bristol and Real Estates at Peer Gallery. Andrea co-founded the cultural collectives Fugitive Images and Vision Machine.