It occurs when a poet is asked why he composed in a particular style and a singer is quizzed about their choice of performance style, as well as when a director is asked about his choice of a particular theme for his film.
Such questions come from an initial lack of awareness of the predominant subconscious motivations which govern most artists' relationship with their productions, as well as the connection that an engaged audience makes with the artwork. Those feelings are tightly related to an individual's character, experiences, and overall sense of being.
The selections made in the artistic process and the experiences they create for those consuming the art can hardly be regarded as voluntary and conscious actions. The late Iraqi poet Muhammad Mahdi Al-Jawahiri aptly expressed how such connections can be diverse as well as intricate:
While others pluck the fruits of the tree,
I am stunned by its branches' beauty.
Destiny and the timeless eternity of work
'The Dam' is set on a brickfield on the banks of the Nile. For more than an hour, it depicts young Sudanese men spending most of their day in utter silence while mixing water with soil to produce mud.
They pour it into fixed moulds using simple casting tools that intermittently break the quiet. The work is professional and swift, carried out by people with long experience in the trade. The workers transport the bricks using hand-drawn carriages to a nearby location, where they are removed from the moulds, methodically arranged, and left to dry under the sun.
Within a few days, the bricks solidify, becoming sturdy building materials that can be used in construction projects far from their isolated and desolate location.
At sunset, the workmen retreat to their nearby campsite to bathe in the river or prepare meals. Meanwhile, Maher, the film's protagonist, sits alone on a metal scaffold above the dam's water and makes a call on a mobile phone.
The evenings are also almost entirely quiet, giving the impression that language and communication are unnecessary at this desolate location. These are lives devoted entirely to work, devoid of any other interests. They seem to be predestined to a lifetime of labour without any other option but to accept their fate.
The only respite from the monotony comes from news and pictures about Sudan's post-2019 revolution, transmitted through phones, television, and the radio. The workmen are indifferent to it, due to the lack of impact on their existence, and they treat it as they would a song played in their camp. For the film's audience, these intrusions are the only evidence that the workmen here are living in the modern world.
Slumbering workmen are shown, with only the sound of their breathing piercing the stillness of their muddy surroundings. The sweat from their bodies combines with the deep sounds of their snores, causing the mud to move with a thick motion reminiscent of the beginnings of life on Earth.
'The Dam'