The Villages is a documentary film, presenting two geographically distinct communities as they begin to merge into one fictive filmed space. The film moves from intimacy to observation, focusing on a retirement community of the same name and the former German colonial town of Swakopmund, Namibia, most recently appearing as the setting for the remake of the British television series, The Prisoner. Using the series as a leitmotif, The Villages portrays the reconstruction and the idealization of colonial histories, through the architecture, borders and social relations of both communities. A narrative begins to form between the analogies of spaces and the conventions of documentary, between the synchronization of image and sound; between acting and editing. The Villages represents a fantastic dystopian space, through the ever evolving social segregation of the communities and the transformation of tourism into everyday life.
