The Drift traces the shifting economies of objects in contemporary Lebanon. The film moves between three main characters: the gatekeeper of the Roman temples of Niha in the Beqaa Valley; a young mechanic from Britel, a village known for trading automobile parts; and an archaeological conservator working at the American University of Beirut.

The Drift

Human beings are horribly blind to the effect that they have on the natural environment. Yet all around us those repercussions reverberate.

Listening in the Dark

In 2014, 45 crates of looted antiquities were discovered at Geneva Freeport in a warehouse belonging to disgraced antiquities dealer Robin Symes. They contained tens of thousands of archaeological remnants worth around £7 million. Three of the crates were sent to forensic archaeologists Dr Christos Tsirogiannis and Dr Vinnie Norskov for research. An Excavation documents Tsirogiannis and Norskov’s investigation into a series of vases from the Geneva Freeport crates. Made in the 4th century BC by Apulian artisans, these vases remained buried in tombs for 2500 years before they were clandestinely excavated from their now irrecoverable contexts. The objects’ journeys through the hands of looters, smugglers, restorers and dealers are counterpointed by the hand-painted stories that adorn them. Made for burials, the vases depict scenes from the underworld – forensic and mythological narratives start to intertwine.

An Excavation

Siticulosa’s multidisciplinary research considers the relationship between archaeology, geology and agriculture in the Puglian landscape. “Parched” or “very dry”, as in Horace’s description of the region (Siticulosa Apulia), continues to be an accurate description of the dominant conditions that allow for the appearance of crop marks to indicate the presence of archaeological sites beneath. The film is a study of a territory, and the marks and wounds that it bears of a history of pillage, but also a portrait of the people that inhabit it (farmers, antique dealers, amateur archaeologists, local historians) and their symbiotic relationship to the landscape.