Francis Alÿs Movies

  • 2008
    Children’s Game #3: Coins

    Children’s Game #3: Coins

    Children’s Game #3: Coins

    02008HD

    We see three kids from behind, standing at a set distance from a peeling, whitewashed wall. The rule is that each player throws a coin against the...

    Children’s Game #3: Coins
  • 2009
    Children’s Game #5: Revolver

    Children’s Game #5: Revolver

    Children’s Game #5: Revolver

    02009HD

    The props in this game are wooden sticks or branches shaped like guns. Two kids pretend to fire at each other, making elaborate and highly varied...

    Children’s Game #5: Revolver
  • 2017
    Children’s Game #19: Haram Football

    Children’s Game #19: Haram Football

    Children’s Game #19: Haram Football

    02017HD

    In August 2017, during the final phase of the Fatah (Conquest) Operation, the Iraqi Army pushed Islamic State combatants back from the east bank of...

    Children’s Game #19: Haram Football
  • 2016
    Children’s Game #16: Hopscotch

    Children’s Game #16: Hopscotch

    Children’s Game #16: Hopscotch

    02016HD

    Outside a stark tent city, this version of the game involves a grid of squares, two across by six long, marked by lines gouged into the arid ground....

    Children’s Game #16: Hopscotch
  • 2011
    Children’s Game #10: Papalote

    Children’s Game #10: Papalote

    Children’s Game #10: Papalote

    02011HD

    A 10-year-old boy in a pink salwar kameez stands near a dune-coloured wall under a powder-blue sky. He frowns and gesticulates, conversing in stops...

    Children’s Game #10: Papalote
  • 2013
    Children’s Game #15: Espejos

    Children’s Game #15: Espejos

    Children’s Game #15: Espejos

    02013HD

    Boys stampede through the shells of small geometric homes, fancy boxes falling to bits in a dry-grass wasteland like futuristic ruins. The players...

    Children’s Game #15: Espejos
  • 2011
    Watercolor

    Watercolor

    Watercolor

    02011HD

    "Mixing water from the Red Sea with water from the Black Sea". Trabzon, Turkey-Aqaba, Jordan, 2010.

    Watercolor
  • 2011
    Children’s Game #9: Saltamontes

    Children’s Game #9: Saltamontes

    Children’s Game #9: Saltamontes

    02011HD

    Girls and boys, together for once, hunt through lush grass and undergrowth, on the lookout for well-camouflaged grasshoppers. When one is found its...

    Children’s Game #9: Saltamontes
  • 2010
    Children’s Game #8: Marbles

    Children’s Game #8: Marbles

    Children’s Game #8: Marbles

    02010HD

    This game requires considerable practice and precision, especially on the uneven terrain of an urban waste lot. The action consists in flicking a...

    Children’s Game #8: Marbles
  • 2007
    Children’s Game #2: Ricochets

    Children’s Game #2: Ricochets

    Children’s Game #2: Ricochets

    02007HD

    The bay is peaceful, framed by low hills in the distance. Three boys stand thigh-deep in the brown water, trousers rolled up. The biggest, on the...

    Children’s Game #2: Ricochets
  • 2008
    Bolero (Shoe Shine Blues), 1996-2007

    Bolero (Shoe Shine Blues), 1996-2007

    Bolero (Shoe Shine Blues), 1996-2007

    02008HD

    A traditional animation, hand-drawn in 500+ frames (which are also on display as part of the installation). The animation consists solely of a shoe...

    Bolero (Shoe Shine Blues), 1996-2007
  • 2008
    Children’s Game #4: Elastic

    Children’s Game #4: Elastic

    Children’s Game #4: Elastic

    02008HD

    Close-up on shiny boots, knotted elastic, cobbles. Within the confines of a courtyard two demure little girls are playing a game of confinement,...

    Children’s Game #4: Elastic
  • 1970
    Set Theory

    Set Theory

    Set Theory

    01970HD

    Francis Alÿs has his own drawing painted by several different semi-professional painters.

    Set Theory
  • 1970
    Prohibited Steps

    Prohibited Steps

    Prohibited Steps

    01970HD

    Lamma Island, Hong Kong, 2020.

    Prohibited Steps
  • 1999
    Children's Game #1: Caracoles

    Children's Game #1: Caracoles

    Children's Game #1: Caracoles

    01999HD

    High above the city that shimmers like a distant sea, a boy kicks a plastic bottle half full of liquid up a steep shanty road of light and dark. A...

    Children's Game #1: Caracoles
  • 2004
    The Green Line

    The Green Line

    The Green Line

    02004HD

    In The Green Line, for which the axiom was ‘sometimes the political is poetic, sometimes the poetic is political’, Alÿs walks...

    The Green Line
  • 2005
    Politics of Rehearsal

    Politics of Rehearsal

    Politics of Rehearsal

    02005HD

    Politics of Rehearsal (2005) Focuses on the theme of rehearsal, which is so characteristic of Belgian-born, Mexico City-based Francis...

    Politics of Rehearsal
  • 2005
    Looking Up

    Looking Up

    Looking Up

    02005HD

    2005, 00:03:07

    Looking Up
  • 1998
    Cantos Patrioticus 2 - studio

    Cantos Patrioticus 2 - studio

    Cantos Patrioticus 2 - studio

    01998HD

    1998, 00:27:42

    Cantos Patrioticus 2 - studio
  • 1998
    Cantos Patrioticus 1 - street

    Cantos Patrioticus 1 - street

    Cantos Patrioticus 1 - street

    01998HD

    1998, 00:27:43

    Cantos Patrioticus 1 - street