Dreaming Is Not Sleeping (2025)
Title: Dreaming Is Not Sleeping
A Film By Rouzbeh Rashidi
Year: 2025
County of Production: Ireland, Germany, Poland, and Denmark
Genre: Experimental, Essay Film, Documentary
Format: 8K
Language: English
Duration: 64 Minutes
Production: Experimental Film Society
Funding Body: The Arts Council of Ireland
Synopsis:
Dreaming Is Not Sleeping is an introspective essay film exploring the relationship between memory, existence, and time, narrated by a spectral voice drifting through ancient ruins. The film contemplates perception, clairvoyance, and whether the present can be seen through the lens of memory, blurring the lines between past, present, and future. As the voice moves through decaying structures, it reflects on human impermanence and defiance of time. Vignettes of past lives illustrate universal human experiences. The film concludes by pondering existence, consciousness, and humanity's drive to create meaning amidst an indifferent universe, challenging viewers to reflect on their own place in time and memory.
Voice:
Meister Rumelant.
Music:
Cinema Cyanide.
Director's Statement:
In the essay film "Dreaming Is Not Sleeping," experimental filmmaker Rouzbeh Rashidi delves into the liminal spaces between consciousness and unconsciousness, reality and illusion, and memory and imagination. The film is a poetic meditation on the nature of human existence, perception, and the creative process itself. Rashidi approaches the medium of film as a form of clairvoyance, challenging viewers to question the very essence of perception. He posits that viewing a film through the hazy lens of memory may be possible, even as we witness its account unfolding for the first time. This perspective blurs the lines between past, present, and future, creating a dreamlike state where time becomes fluid and malleable.
The film's narrative structure is deliberately fragmented, mirroring the non-linear nature of dreams and memories. Rashidi weaves together various vignettes, philosophical musings, and lyrical interludes to create a tapestry of human experience, serving as a metaphor for the act of remembering and the ways in which we construct our personal narratives. Rashidi's approach to filmmaking is introspective and existential. He grapples with themes of impermanence, the search for meaning, and the inevitability of suffering. The film suggests that human suffering began when we started searching for the meaning of our existence; yet paradoxically, it is this very search that defines our humanity.
Visual metaphors play a crucial role in "Dreaming Is Not Sleeping." Rashidi uses the imagery of sparks from a blacksmith's hammer, the darkness of an impenetrable void, and the interplay of light and shadow to represent the fleeting nature of life, the depths of human consciousness, and the struggle between illumination and obscurity in our quest for understanding.
The director also explores the nature of creativity and the role of the artist. He posits that we can know only as far as we can create, suggesting that the act of creation is inextricably linked to our ability to comprehend the world around us. This self-reflexive approach extends to the medium of film itself, with Rashidi questioning the power and limitations of images in capturing the essence of reality.
Throughout the film, Rashidi grapples with human nature's duality—our capacity for both creation and destruction, love and hatred, bliss and suffering. He suggests that even in our most civilized state, we carry within us a remnant of the barbarian, a primal instinct that defies the veneer of civilization.
"Dreaming Is Not Sleeping" invites viewers to embrace the ambiguity and complexity of existence, to find poetry in melancholy, and to recognize the interconnectedness of all things. In doing so, the film creates a cinematic space where visions and reality coalesce, where the boundaries of perception are challenged, and where the viewer is encouraged to confront the most fundamental questions of human existence.
Reviews:
“Rashidi’s work lingers in the tenuous realm of the unspoken… cinema finds a fleeting grace: unsettling, enthralling, and achingly human.” - Juliette Verbeeck
“A natural continuation of the spiritually transformative path that began with Elpis in 2023, Dreaming Is Not Sleeping is arguably the most contemplative offering in Rouzbeh Rashidi’s oeuvre so far. Essayistic in its approach, and achingly lyrical at that, the film offers a philosophically informed rumination on the very fabric of our existence—shaped by memories, suffering, love, death, and creation as an act of defiance against time. But, first and foremost, it is an ennobling experience, one that is difficult to put into words, especially during its transcendental final chapter, set in what can best be described as the astral plane.” - Nikola Gocić
