SWEET BETEL

“Betel fosters relationships and thus serves as an avenue of communication between relatives, lovers, friends, and strangers. Because of its power in bounding relationships, betel is used symbolically to solidify acts of justice such as oaths of allegiance and the settlement of law suits.”

The tradition of chewing Betel is rich in symbolism. A highly social and equalitarian ritual, it has inspired radical cultural perceptions between East and West.  Sweet Betel is inspired by the exilic optic found in the genre of accented cinema, a cinema of displacement and de-territorialisation.

Sweet Betel is a reflection on the perception of otherness and the complex mechanism of negative identification active and on both sides of ethnic constructs.