I 1998 lagde Film fra Sør-aktuelle Shirin Neshat denne split screen-installasjonsfilmen som har fått klassikerstatus. Hun har i mange år arbeidet som videokunstner innen hun i fjor debuterte som langfilmregissør med ”Women without Men” som denne uken vises under Film fra Sør-festivalen (og som får ordinær kinopremiere om tre uker).

Filmen viser helt enkelt to sangere som i hver sin del av bildet utøver hver sin sang, men etter hvert vokser filmen til noe mer. I et essay om denne filmen skriver regissøren Atom Egoyan følgende:

”What is so provocative about Turbulent is that no judgement can be passed without a thorough examination of the context these respective singers are placed in. The male performance is socially sanctioned and realistic. The woman’s performance is outlawed and exists only as a dream.

While much has been written about the overtly political nature of Neshat’s work, Turbulent is also a groundbreaking piece of filmed drama. The male and female narratives are simultaneously opposed and complimentary. The viewer, placed between the two screens, cannot physically absorb both at the same time. No vantage point in the installation allows the audience the privileged position of omniscience provided in a conventional cinema or single-monitor viewing. The continuous stream of angles and compositions which comprise a traditional film or television experience are challenged by this form which situates the viewer as the effective editor of their own experience of the work. It would be possible, for example, to watch the male figure as the woman’s soulful song is heard. Depending on which way one observes the piece, there are an infinite number of ways that Turbulent may be constructed. “