Rosalind Nashashibi

Vivian’s Garden (2017) depicts the relationship between two Swiss / Austrian émigré artists – Vivian Suter and her mother Elisabeth Wild. They live together in Panajachel, Guatemala, where they have developed a matriarchal compound in an environment that offers both refuge and terror. Elisabeth is in her nineties and Vivian in her sixties and they are as close as maiden sisters, in fact the family relationship is shifting, each is at times mother and daughter to the other. This film takes a close and dreamy look at their artistic, emotional and economic lives, with their extended householders: Mayan villagers as guardians and home help, and an assortment of dogs, it offers a tender look at an instance of post-colonial complexity.