Video
HD | 16:9 | 23 minutes
Designed, written and composed by Mikhail Karikis
Filmed, directed and edited by David Bickerstaff

The film XENON is a political allegory based on an original performance opera by the artist Mikhail Karikis. Using the original score and performers, Karikis and the artist/filmmaker David Bickerstaff, come together in a collaboration to produce a unique cinematic interpretation of the opera for the screen.

The unusual absence of a colleague triggers reactions in seven characters working in an austere office. Yearning to overcome the oppressive routine and an omnipresent authority, each character enters a psychic dream space to battle with frustration, self-censorship, high aspiration and failure. The bleak and banal machinations of the office routine are contrasted with sequences of reverie and surreal imaginings each character searches for their voice within the construct of their human rights.

XENON brings together experimental cinema, performance art and opera to the screen and features performances by dancer/choreographer Maurice Causey, vocalists Amy Cunningham and E.laine, viola player Conall Gleeson, juice ensemble, Jade Pybus, artists Monica Ross and Mikhail Karikis.

Funded by Arts Council England
Supported in kind by University of Brighton