Structured as a journey, ‘Heiopei’ is a surreal, spellbinding tour-de-force, an escape from the monotony and grief of life in lock-down. Imagined characters wander through an emotional anti-realist fairy-tale landscape, where the familiar and the naïve provide the backdrop to scenes of spirit-possession, metamorphosis, restraint and release. All content, including the music was written and performed by Susanne Deeken in her studio in London.
A mysterious protagonist emerges from elemental energies, leading us on her sensational journey. She (the “Ur-Frau”) is a mysterious force, ever-changing, responding to, and even becoming, her encounters with nature. A story of emotion: felt, rather than told, where the original score pulsates expressively with the visuals’ rhythm, breathing and oozing nature’s forms and wonders.
Through a nonlinear, abstract and surreal form of storytelling, this film follows a protagonist through a labyrinth of physical and emotional situations, set in a house which acts as both the set for the story and a metaphor for the mind. The techniques used in the film are a mix of analogue and digital: actual painting in the house, digital rendering and avatars, stop-motion painting, drawing, and collaging, with the majority created in Detroit and subsequent scenes finalised in London. With an original score by Susanne Deeken in collaboration with experimental and jazz musicians from Detroit.
