The Annunciation – Marian Ilmestys

The Annunciation – Marian Ilmestys

Production country: 
fi
Year: 
2011
Duration: 
37 min
Edition: 
2013
Format: 
film/video
© Crystal Eye – Kristallisilmä Oy
© Crystal Eye – Kristallisilmä Oy

The Annunciation is a film in which one of the central motifs of Christian iconography is constructed and re-enacted through moving image. It is based on the narrative in the Gospel of Luke (1:26-38) and on paintings of the Annunciation in which artists have, in various periods, depicted their visions of the gospel’s events. In this Annunciation the events are set in the present. The footage was shot mainly during the frosty winter season of 2010 in the snowy Aulanko nature reserve in southern Finland and on a set depicting an artist’s studio and the scene of the Annunciation. All human actors except for two are non-professionals. Most of them are clients of the Helsinki Deaconess Institute’s women’s support services. The animal actors are a trained raven, two ordinary donkeys and a group of carrier pigeons from a bird farm. Although based on an existing script, the events, roles and dialogue were adapted during the filming process to the actors’ individual presence. The underlying viewpoint in the Annunciation is Jacob von Uexküll’s idea that the different worlds of living beings all exist simultaneously. The idea is used as the approach for an exploration of the nature of miracles and the possibilities of perception and knowledge. In the work, the actors reconstruct the sacred, and in the process redefine the human through the divine and the animal.

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