The surrealist music video reimagines the myth of Sisyphus where he was cursed to repeat the same task of pushing a boulder up a mountain every day for eternity. Using the myth as inspiration, Sisyphos introduces us to a woman who presents a basket of bread to a singularly unique group of people in a church. She watches it get devoured within a few minutes, only to return to the task of baking more bread soon after. 

The images that are thus used to delineate the process are taken a step further and suffused with symbolism and metaphors of their own. While the idea of cyclicality of life is conjured, it is coupled with a sense of openness of the vast outdoors where eventually the protagonist surrenders herself. The carnality of the visuals unfolding before you employ tight close-ups to invoke a sensuality that is loud and clear in the message it delivers to the viewer.

 The well-thought visual development is coupled with Acid Pauli‘s remix of Johanna Burnheart‘s ‘Sisyphos’ to present the music video as a cohesive whole. It does a notable job of drawing you in its world of strange beings and their stranger acts, and ties it all together with a track that ensures that, as you try to comprehend the drama unfolding before you, your immersion in its otherworldliness and surrealism remains constant throughout.

Sisyphos | Short Film of the Day

A disoriented sex-worker arrives at the doorstep of a potentially dangerous client. As the details become more and more lucid in her head, and memory is entwined with remembrance, a fragmented reality of sorts begins to come into existence. However, the viewer is never left in silence for the voice of the protagonist remains our constant companion. Unsure of her surroundings, she remains an unreliable source of information throughout, but also the only one available to the viewer. 

The narrative is weaved with an approach that keeps the audience guessing about whether or not to believe the sole voice. At the same time, however, the development of the visual narrative leaves no two ways about the chain of events. The plot acquires a fairly well-defined form when the two overlap, eventually leaving us with a story about friendships, protectiveness and looking out for one another in a space located at the margins of society. 

There is almost a heady quality to the manner in which all of these thematic concerns, and their linked metaphors, are dealt with in this story which traces its steps back to an act of violence, while, at the same time, positioning itself as the origin story of a vigilante.

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