The Secret of the Woman-bird
surreal experimental short film 4´25”, 2014
Direction: Anke Schiemann
Camera: Martin Gooch
Music score: Matt Gosden
Sound & fx mix: Claire Bilyard
Animation: Jun Iwakawa, Jia Ma
Actors: Maia Sienkiewicz, Dan Chambers, Anette Szlaski
Costumes: Rachel Mc Wha, Anke Schiemann
In a dream-like sequence a Madonna and an Edwardian man meet on the beach of Reculver for a game of chess. The woman vanishes and only a black box containing the secret of her myserious disappearance stays behind.
The Madonna, identified as the “psyche” or “anima” gradually submits to the man with the bowler hat, even commits the cardinal crime of punishing her child, sinks into vice and is finally destroyed.
The film uses dream logic in narrative flow presenting a series of tenuously related scenes. The film is in keeping with the basic principle of Surrealism,'Psychic Automatism', through which one is capable of returning to the mind its true functions, beyond any form of control by reason, morality or aesthetics.
The film consists of animated etched drawings inspired by the surrealistic collage novel “Une semaine de Bonté” by Max Ernst and paintings by Giorgio de Chirico.
The movie was shown at the London Experimental Film Festival and awarded with “best soundscore” .