NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art presents the New York premiere of Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s (b. 1959, Finland) film Where Is Where? (2009), a haunting and layered consideration of how history affects our perception of reality. The film receives a weeklong run October 1 through 7, 2009, in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2, and Ahtila will introduce the first screening on October 1.

Based on a true story, the hour-long film focuses on two young Arab boys who murdered their French friend 50 years ago during the Algerian war. Years later, a European poet (played by the actress Kati Outinen) seeks to understand and interpret this event with the aid of the character Death. The film had its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila is a visual artist and filmmaker who produces photographs and video or film installations that fill and subvert gallery spaces. She studied film at the London College of Printing (Film and Video Department), the American Film Institute, and UCLA, and she lives and works in Helsinki. She shoots most of her work in Super 16mm and then blows it up to 35mm. Ahtila’s previous works The Wind (2002) and Love Is a Treasure (2002) were presented at the Museum in 2006. She also exhibited in Documenta XI (2002) and the 50th Venice Biennale (2005). She was the recipient of the Artes Mundi Prize in 2006.

MoMA Presents: Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s Where Is Where? is organized by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film.