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Filmmaker John Akomfrah directed this impressionistic, semi-documentary examination of the journey of African, Caribbean and Asian exiles into the United Kingdom. The Nine Muses combines archival footage of the arrival of immigrants into Britain and the often difficult integration into the mainstream of English culture with symbolic sequences shot in Alaska in which three figures wander through the frozen wastes but never meet, and scenes in which emigrants wander abandoned industrial districts in England. The film also uses the nine muses of Greek mythology as a recurring metaphor, also incorporating the works of Homer with readings of the works of great British writers from Williams Shakespeare to Dylan Thomas. The Nine Muses received its American premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.