A man has disappeared into the landscape. Tracing the story of a North Korean defector who escaped from Jilin Prison in northeast China in 2021 and evaded authorities for forty days, Hostile Landscapes documents his movement across the landscape, both known and imagined hiding places. Originally a two-channel installation, Hanwen Zhang contextualises Ju’s escape within larger histories of colonialism and authoritative control in East Asia.

The film's two-channel format allows the filmmaker to provide textual explanation of historical and political context alongside images of the vast landscape. Yet, when only the landscape is shown, the split screens take on a different functionality. The fracturing of images through the two-channel form evokes a landscape fragmented and shaped by authoritative domination. Through this fragmentation, viewers are reminded of how landscapes are inscribed with the governmental systems that shape and govern them, land carved out of the earth into a heavily monitored, fenced in space.

LA