Fable: I Want the World Clean

Musing on the violence we do to the world and our histories by trying to rid them of impurities, this fantastic "tale" centers on a family's house passed down through five generations.

The film opens amid mountain greenery over the reading of a 1937 memorandum by Serbian government minister Iseljavnje Anauta. The memo recommends a policy of strategic harassment and terror against non Serbs to force them to flee that nation, which, as the scenery shifts to reveal an old farmhouse, is interrupted and replaced by the beginnings of an interview with an unseen woman concerning the house.


An old-style photographer is setting up to shoot a scene which literally collapses right in front of him, and the story begins again with the woman's narration describing the glory days of the house under the images of a nearby TREE.

We are then introduced to the exterior of the house as she speaks. Moving closer, we are eventually placed inside as the woman's narration drifts away to reveal the image of an old woman (possibly the narrator) silently remembering beautiful moments in the old rooms. As her reveries unfold, they become more varied and colorful until they are interrupted by the return of the reading of Iseljavnje Anauta's report.

At this point the imagery becomes tainted with dirt and grime, and as the woman tries in vain to compete with the male reader's diatribe, we see the house torn asunder at all angles. All voices are overwhelmed by the crescendo of destruction until at last the TREE that was introduced at the beginning of the film falls.

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(available on VHS, and DVD 2: "1997-2002")