It seems odd to note the visual beauty of a music video whose subject matter is the ripped-from-the-headlines plight of refugees, but M.I.A.’s clip for “Borders” fits the hackneyed description that is sometimes applied to formally innovative or just beautiful feature films: nearly every frame is a work of art on its own.
As the singer/rapper/producer/director stares down the camera, she drops questioning lyrics that swing from a checklist of burning social issues (“Police shots / What’s up with that? / Identities / What’s up with that? / Broke people / What’s up with that? / Boat people / What’s up with that?”) to calling out the superficiality that rules pop culture (“Slaying it/ What’s up with that? / Your goals / What’s up with that? / Being bae / What’s up with that? / Breaking internet / What’s up with that?”)
Meanwhile, the visual backdrop for all this commentary is barbed wire fencing teeming with bodies, all-seeing security cameras, precariously overcrowded boats, and uniformly clad bodies artfully stacked on a beach. The camera closes in to flip backdrop to the foreground, and then swings out again to frame M.I.A. as spokesperson for the desperate folks caught in limbo between what they’re fleeing and an uncertain future. The images are painstakingly composed; vibrant colors leap out from the despair being catalogued. Yet, the artfulness on display never overwhelms the bleak realities spoken of, and there isn’t an ounce of sentimentality.
A point of curiosity, though, is the absence of women and girls in the clip. M.I.A. is the only woman ever seen. Given that the refugee’s journey carries special and often gender-specific risks and hardships for girls and women, it’s an odd omission. But we also have to keep in mind that M.I.A.’s previous video “Matahdatah Scroll 01 ‘Broader Than A Border,’” was a celebration of fierce, contemporary female warriors, and both clips are part of a larger project. Press notes state that “Borders” is, “the latest installment of an ongoing multi-media/multi-format project exploring the wider concept of ‘Borders,’” which will be included on M.I.A.’s forthcoming album and “film experience” Matahdtah.
Photo by Daniel Sannwald
