MU/T/T/ER

“MU/T/T/ER” is a film that focuses on the utterances of different rooms in a house, in recipe sharing, memories, shadows, and sounds. Each room has a message in a language that is heard everywhere but only understood for whom the message is for, similar to the jina of the leso cloth that is worn by the people of Mombasa. This film is about language and how to articulate with a tongue that breaks words or has had to twist. This is narrated through sound, the movement of light and what the room has experienced/witnessed/heard through its windows, objects and doors.

Esther Kondo Heller is a Kenyan-German poet, writer, and experimental filmmaker. They are a Barbican Young Poet 2018/19, an Obsidian Foundation fellow, and Ledbury Critic. They approach the filmmaking process as a poet and are focused on layering and unfurling to articulate memory, resonance, and language. Their film “Bodies” (2020) was produced as part of the Visible Poetry Project, New York and their film hooded violets was screened at the 2019 Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin. They are currently doing an MFA in Poetry at Cornell University.