S-HER (2018)

Constructed as a cyclical dreamscape and inspired by Escher's exploration of repetitive space, S-HER is a cinematic Möbius strip of a perpetual and inescapable nightmare. Set inside the crumbling walls of a Medieval French Château, the female protagonist is seen running up a seemingly endless spiral of stairs, in a futile bid to escape HER previous self in a never/an ever-changing confusion of identity. As the sequence continues, the emphasis on circularity results in an unnerving repetition, establishing an atmosphere of heightened paranoia and uncertainty. Inspired by the repetitive structure of a Chopin Prelude, the film employs a Schenkerian reading of harmonic structure for the visual placement of pivotal narrative moments. The musical score, entirely manipulated to create a perfect Golden Section in its third and final segment, exploits the natural 'compensating rubato' within musical performance, in which any acceleration is later accounted for when the music slows down again. By systematically increasing tension and sense of panic experienced by both character and audience, SHE becomes the dreamer and the dreamed, trapped in an unresolved narrative that is saturated with restlessness and alienation.