This contemplative documentary by the late, great filmmaker Harun Farocki compares different methods of brick production in cultures around the world.

Spanning continents and cultures, In Comparison focuses on the brick — that very basic unit of foundation — and traces its contexts, from the collective efforts of a community building a clinic in Burkina Faso, through semi-industrialized mouldings in India, to industrial production lines in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland. Eschewing traditional commentary, but certainly employing a deft, willful and playful point of view, In Comparison presents various methods of labour production, allowing for an assessment that changes with every layer and goes well beyond a simple binary divide. Never schematic but nevertheless possessing a notable (and charming) structure, this striking 16mm colour film reveals the innate beauty of forms, rows, clay, fabric and skin gleaming in the sunlight.