HIEROPHANY
HIEROFANIA
Nothingness bursts, and lets out something. From a dark, tarry mass beings emerge — genderless, looped and alone in repetitive, aimless motions. Everything changes, when one of them discovers in itself s o m e t h i n g. It extracts a red ball from within itself. Immediately, the ball starts getting bigger, shifting its shape and hypnotising all of the beings. They all unite in an ecstatic, ritualistic dance — because of an idea, a community is formed. The beings lose themselves and are engulfed by the abyss of the substance which resembles volcanic lava. From the cultivated object of a vaginal shape, a new life is born, a life different from the one that existed before — a colourful, diverse and gendered life.
The author shows hierophany in a symbolic way in the film — the manifestation of holiness in the world, described by the historian and philosopher of religion Mircea Eliade. The author presents an oneiric vision bordering on waking, dreaming and psychedelic experiences, using a language of intense colour and pulsating shapes. The animation is, at the same time, an expression of fascination by the work of cultural anthropologists and the life of traditional societies. On the other hand, it is an expression of a fascination by the life of simple organisms, observed as if through a microscope in a laboratory. “Hierophany” is a fantasy about the beginning — the beginning of the world? human? myth? religion? culture? — a journey into an imaginary world that does not require an unambiguous interpretation.
- Genre: Animated
- Country: Poland
- Running time: 4
- Year: 2021
- Color: colour
Director: Maria Nitek
Script: Maria Nitek
Music: Antonina Nowacka, Bogumiła Nowacka
Editing: Maria Nitek
Sound: Lucyna Wielopolska
Production company: PWSFTviT (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna)
