The Akram Tree 2011

The Akram Tree is a journey through the personal and professional world of the British-Bangladeshi choreographer and dancer Akram Khan. The dancer manifested his body within a vast desert, in the immediate surroundings of the futuristic city Abu Dhabi, where he was showcasing his new production Gnosis, a piece realised in collaboration with seven artists he discovered from different parts of the world including India, Japan, Pakistan, England, Egypt, Iraq and Bangladesh. Drawing from sources both ancient and modern, Gnosis is inspired by the Hindu epic Mahabharata, in particular the story of Gandhari, the wife of the blind king who blindfolds herself for life to share his journey. The film intercepts Akram’s dialogues with artistic portrayal of his dancers and musicians in front of old junks in a fishing port and a city full of artificial glamour. He relates how his past influenced his visions and how he combines his classical Indian kathak training with contemporary dance.