By The Throat

In By The Throat, the artists Effi & Amir take us on an exploration through an invisible but crucial border area: speech. This area defines what sounds we produce and how we pronounce words. We carry this borderland with us in our oral cavity, in our mother tongue. The boundaries that run through us are especially evident when others use our  speech as a means of identification. Others then deter- mine who we are, to which group we belong, whether we are  allowed to enter or not. We thus form a mobile checkpoint wherever we are.

The use of speech as a means of identification to determine to which group a person belongs is known as Shibboleth – after a biblical variation on the “shield” and  “friend” story. Shibboleth is a current practice: both con- scious and unconscious, official and unofficial, with minimal  or serious consequences.

By The Throat navigates between aural, anatomical, and  political territories, exploring a range of diverse, contempo- rary uses of Shibboleth. The use is even employed during  language tests that are part of current asylum procedures in Europe. The film questions the oppressive use of technology that reinforces a binary, polarizing logic.