Children’s Game #20: Leapfrog

Nerkzlia, Iraq, 2018; 5:53 min
In collaboration with Ivan Boccara, Julien Devaux, and Félix Blume

 

Leapfrog in English, saute-mouton in French, haasje over in Dutch, kabbadi in Hindi, bockspringen in German. Frogs, sheep, hares, dogs, and deer are all exuberant jumpers; Mexico provides an exception with the resigned, earthbound donkey of el burro. Rules vary around the world, but generally stage an idealistically reversible game of domination: everyone is both leaper and leaped, and the last become first. The players here are not all wearing their usual clothes, for these are screen tests for the film Sandlines, in which kids act out a century of Iraqi history. We glimpse, without knowing, Mr. English and Mr. French, Saddam Hussein, a Kurd, an Arab shepherd… The main contribution of such costumes is the challenge of keeping one’s hat on while being leapfrogged. Anarchy is always just a tumble away. One girl even tries to vault back up the line – a new variant that could catch on.

Lorna Scott Fox

 

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