This work is part of a series of Murano glass marionettes and statuettes created for Wael Shawky’s elaborate film Cabaret Crusades III: The Secrets of Karbalaa. Shawky’s meticulously produced film is populated with exquisite, hand-crafted marionettes, which he uses to carefully act out key scenes and events from the destructive religious wars.

The narrative of the film begins with the legendary battle of Karbala in 680 A.D., often quoted as the starting point for the religious divide between Shi’a and Sunni branches of Islam, and later shifts to show the chasms between Orthodox and Catholic Christians, which emerged during the Fourth Crusade. Betrayal, disloyalty and fragility define the story, with empires and kingdoms rising and falling with terrifying regularity.

Shawky created the marionettes and statuettes from Murano glass, some taking the form of animals, others disfigured - all showing the grotesque brutality of war. The use of Murano glass emphasises the fragile and delicate nature of the religious and political sparring of the Crusades, but it also cleverly intertwines the European and Arabian narratives, fusing East and West.