Composer and filmmaker Christian von Borries new film Desert of the real visits these contemporary wastelands In a rich collage of acted scenes and documentary footage he extends the metaphor of the wasteland to todays medial reality At the heart of so many holographic simulations and replicas in a world custommade for selfie and instagram tweets he reveals emptiness and potential violence David Riff The only way to trace the distinction between the semblance and the Real is precisely to STAGE it in a fake spectacle