Ambustum

Ambustum (Latin for “burnt”) is a short film developed during my final year of the Master’s programme in Fine Art and Design: Lens-Based Media at the Piet Zwart Institute, and screened at the Eye Filmmuseum. Drawing inspiration from the iconic photograph of the burning monk in 1960s Saigon, the film explores the quiet, internalised struggle of an individual confronted by the weight and monotony of everyday existence.

Through a restrained and contemplative visual language, Ambustum traces a gradual rupture between the individual and their surroundings, culminating in an act of self-immolation as both protest and refusal. The film reflects on the limits of endurance, the politics of the body, and the extreme gestures that emerge when language and conventional forms of resistance fall away.