ECLIPSE

“Eclipse”, un poem en images, a visual poem, was filmed using a new and personal approach on the infrared technique, merged with an organic unscripted process five years in the making. The Movie is an aesthetic/symbolic visual essay exploring the idea of Katabasis and redemption.

Log line
Caught in the limbo of an underworld where time and conventional reality ceases to exist, Elena emerges from the collapse of her captivity upon the event of a lunar eclipse.

Short synopsis:
Elena is prisoner in a dark realm not of this world, where the lines between dreams, memories, and realities blur amongst the non-existence of time. Amidst a lunar eclipse, Elena awakens from her captive slumber and embarks in a metamorphic journey, a surrender to a higher calling. Guided by the spirit of nature, Elena seeks something she does not know, but once knew, as she is guided through her personal purgatory until she reaches a universal paradise.

About the making

ECLIPSE was filmed entirely in "Near infra-red light spectrum". If unfamiliar with this technique, it's a way to filter the light that allows to capture images in wavelengths that are normally invisible to human eyes... which literally give us access to new ways to look at the world.

The film was shot over a period of 5 years, essentially by my partner Elena Samuylova who played the only character in the film and myself. When we started we had no specific intentions... we just experimented and shot scenes here and there whenever we had a chance, attracted - hypnotized - by the strange beauty we were beginning to unveil.

The shootings happened in caves, ancient Etruscan tombs, abandoned churches, abandoned cities, isolated natural sceneries around Italy, France and Switzerland.

While making this film, I’ve started to think of this technique as a sort of magic tool to help me dive deep into my inner world and imagination... till the point where filming became more and more of a very personal, almost obsessive kind of journey...A Journey that found its meaning and conclusion only now that the film is finally complete and ready for the public.