Now it transpires that while rehearsing the stage work at the very atmospheric Stone Nest, the former Welsh Chapel on Shaftesbury Avenue, Arthur Pita and his dancers – Natalia Osipova and Jonathan Goddard – found the time to make a short film inspired by the stage work, but distilling its very essence into just under four minutes.
The French-Colombian director Emmanuel G Cuesta and his cinematographer Boris Laroche came from Paris for a one-day shoot. Yann Seabra, designer of the stage work, dressed the space, and the production team and film-makers engaged in the kind of productive brain-storming that ends up generating exciting work.
Emmanuel G Cuesta is defined by his immersion in the arts, culture and anthropology. Today he is known for his documentary approach combined with a passion for beauty, movement, storytelling and art.
His film of The Mother, shot in black and white, is slow, wistful, evolving like a dream. Some of its images are indeed nightmarish, but there's none of the frenzy that at times possesses the stage work; it is, rather a distillation of feelings of loss and hopelessness, of inexorable destiny, portrayed by Osipova and Goddard. The close-ups, particularly of Osipova, create images of unforgettable intensity.
Music by Lena Kaufman, Asya Sorshneva, and Denis Grotsky, where plaintive strings predominate, completes a haunting, extremely beautiful work.
You'll want to watch it multiple times and you can do so here:
What | The Mother: a short dance film |
Where | Online | MAP |
When |
25 Sep 20 – 25 Sep 21, Available from 25 September. Dur.: 3 mins 30 secs |
Price | £N/A |
Website | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxLWj1uhOPs&feature=youtu.be |