Francis Alÿs Movies

  • 2000
    Re-enactment

    Re-enactment

    Re-enactment

    02000HD

    For this work Alÿs purchased a gun in Mexico City then walked through the city streets with the weapon in his hand. After eleven minutes he was...

    Re-enactment
  • 2021
    Children’s Game #31: Slakken

    Children’s Game #31: Slakken

    Children’s Game #31: Slakken

    02021HD

    Snail racing is a game of unequal chances, especially when your snails are not trained champions, but randomly plucked off a wall; individual...

    Children’s Game #31: Slakken
  • 2022
    Children’s Game #36: Kujunkuluka

    Children’s Game #36: Kujunkuluka

    Children’s Game #36: Kujunkuluka

    02022HD

    Many of us played this as kids, spinning on the spot until collapsing. In a group there’s a competitive element, each tries to be the last one...

    Children’s Game #36: Kujunkuluka
  • 2023
    Children’s Game #39: Parol

    Children’s Game #39: Parol

    Children’s Game #39: Parol

    02023HD

    First we drive past harrowing scenes of missile and bullet damage, into an area that’s still intact. At a crossroads not far from the...

    Children’s Game #39: Parol
  • 2022
    Children’s Game #34: Appelsindans

    Children’s Game #34: Appelsindans

    Children’s Game #34: Appelsindans

    02022HD

    Each couple tries to save an orange from gravity. When it falls, the pair is eliminated. This exercise in collaboration involves intimacy: faces are...

    Children’s Game #34: Appelsindans
  • 2022
    Children’s Game #35: Kluddermor

    Children’s Game #35: Kluddermor

    Children’s Game #35: Kluddermor

    02022HD

    Children getting into a frightful mess that only parents could sort out: this familiar scenario plays out subversively, for the rescuing...

    Children’s Game #35: Kluddermor
  • 2004
    The Nightwatch

    The Nightwatch

    The Nightwatch

    82004HD

    The Nightwatch documents an action realised by Alÿs in 2004 in which he released a fox into London’s National Portrait Gallery in the...

    The Nightwatch
  • 2021
    Children’s Game #26: Kisolo

    Children’s Game #26: Kisolo

    Children’s Game #26: Kisolo

    02021HD

    Kisolo is one of a thousand variants of the global Ur-game, Mancala, a “sowing” game sometimes still played with seeds even when using a...

    Children’s Game #26: Kisolo
  • 2021
    Children’s Game #27: Rubi

    Children’s Game #27: Rubi

    Children’s Game #27: Rubi

    02021HD

    With all the charm of flick soccer, Subbuteo, pinball, and other miniature passions, this is played on a small circle of stubby broken-off sticks...

    Children’s Game #27: Rubi
  • 2022
    Children’s Game #33: Schneespiele

    Children’s Game #33: Schneespiele

    Children’s Game #33: Schneespiele

    02022HD

    The most basic sense of fun improvises on chance gifts of the environment. Snow-fun is too immediate to need rules, either. One game suggests...

    Children’s Game #33: Schneespiele
  • 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
  • 2010
    Tornado

    Tornado

    Tornado

    12010HD

    For the last decade Alÿs has made repeated trips to the dusty highlands south of Mexico City to chase the tornadoes that frequently occur in...

    Tornado
  • 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
  • 2023
    Children’s Game #38: Ellsakat

    Children’s Game #38: Ellsakat

    Children’s Game #38: Ellsakat

    02023HD

    Neither indoors nor out, but on the doorstep, where you might play a quick game while waiting for someone. Girl and boy pile up candy wrappers, face...

    Children’s Game #38: Ellsakat
  • 2006
    The Collector

    The Collector

    The Collector

    02006HD

    For an indeterminate period of time, the magnetized metal collector takes a daily walk through the streets and gradually builds up a coat mad of any...

    The Collector
  • 2022
    Children’s Game #32: Estrellas

    Children’s Game #32: Estrellas

    Children’s Game #32: Estrellas

    02022HD

    Why do all the bottle tops start the same way up, grouped together, if there are two teams? When is the ball launched with a plank and when by hand?...

    Children’s Game #32: Estrellas
  • 2017
    Children’s Game #17: Chunggi

    Children’s Game #17: Chunggi

    Children’s Game #17: Chunggi

    02017HD

    Reminiscent of male football tricks where a ball is juggled frontally off the knee or foot, Chunggi, popular among Nepalese girls, appears a lot more...

    Children’s Game #17: Chunggi
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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