The film follows a fairy tale theme. It is split into three acts, each act offering a different world, life and afterlife, the real and imaginary, heaven and hell. The central role is provided by a mystical character, the leader of a secret society that carryout strange rituals. This character switches from being
a puppet (in the form of a disguised porcelain figurine of Jesus) to having a human form throughout the film. The film opens with him arriving at a black pyramid deep in a dark forest, inside is a temple, filled with strange paintings, sculptures and shrines. As the film progresses the main character becomes disillusioned with his secret society while at the same time becoming obsessed with a young princess. His obsessive love is shown by a series of voyeuristic scenes in which he is seen spying on the princess. Eventually
the disillusioned cult leader destroys his society with no resistance offered by his supporters who follow him in blind faith to their deaths. Having given up everything he then discovers the princess already has a lover, a knight who appears as two people. In an uncontrollable rage, the main character decides to take his life and the lives of everyone around him by destroying everything in one colossal explosion. This is the end of the first act.

The second act begins as the first act did with the main character walking through a landscape only this time he is in human form. Instead of a dark forest he is in a bright meadow and instead of a black pyramid he is walking towards a doorway in the landscape, a portal. This is the link between the two worlds. The next world is staged in a dilapidated urban environment, a distopian world of concrete ruins. None of the fairytale romance seen in the first act is present. The world is teeming with demnic characters, mutated versions
of all the characters in the first act. The main character, now always in human form becomes part of a strange ceremony
in which he is judged by a demonic witch and confronted by hisformer porcelain self. Once judged he is forced through another portal.

The third act begins with a single shot panning out from a close up of a tattoo of a shield with a sword emblem, a recurring image in costumes, paintings and sets through out the film. The shot eventually pans out to show a middle aged woman playing an accordion while being tattooed by a man in 1950’s style dress.

Themes

Illusion/Belief: The play between the real and imaginary is the central theme running through the film. The main character is a puppet with a real hand who also takes on a completely human form. Scenes filmed outside, on location have painted props scattered in them. The structure of the film incorporates live performance along side the projected film as well as moving sets onto which the film is projected. The venuein which the film is screened is also used as a scene in the film. The viewer is continuously asked to query there position in relation to the film and question what is real. The film world becomes part of the real world and visa versa. The film itself is silent with a musical score being played by a live musician, in the spirit of early silent cinema. This enhances the dream-like quality. We have been working with various musicians and intend on having several performances with different musicians.

Cults and Rituals: Concepts of magic and ritual are core elements in this film, the working title comes from “The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn” (or "Golden Dawn",
as it is commonly referred to). A Nineteenth Century esoteric
cult with a tradition of magical theurgy and spiritual development. The film uses the visual language of these kinds of secret societies without directly referancing a particular group. Through conversations and collaborations we have inadvertintly created a visual language of our own, full of symbolism that has a connection with these societies. Key scenes in the film are based around a black pyramid,
the head

quarters for the secret society, in which colourful and surreal rituals take place. The interior scenes for this are vital and we intend to film inside an existing Masonic Lodge like that in the Great Eastern Hotel. This would also be the ideal location to screen the film with the live performance.  

Reappearance: Through out the film there is an endless recycling of imagery and characters. The visual language
we use continuously circles back to reveal parallels between characters and places. The symbol on the main characters hat is the same as the tattoo in the final scene, it is also the image that starts and ends the film; the pointed hats worn
by all the main characters are repeated in the form of the pyramid; paintings in the background become actual scenes. The characters themselves are repeated in different
materials and settings. This reappearance acts as a way
of homogenising the characters into elements of one individual. The repetition is used to play with a sense of time, and ultimately to disorient the audience. We want the film
to seem as though it could be looped so that the end becomes the beginning.

With its multi layered and inconsistent narrative, ambiguous in meaning, with an over elaborate and unconventional presentation we want the film to present a challenge to the viewer. Is it one story or two? Are there four main characters or eight or just one? Is there a point to the film or is it a stream-of-consciousness dream-like experience which enables us to present an audience with an assortment of our artwork. The Golden Dawn will be a visual feast, where we attempt to have the audience share in the surreal richness
of a world we have created.