Establishing Eden

New Zealand’s forests, green hills and spectacular rock formations are popular among filmmakers. Many scenes in and the were shot there. In these films and others, the natural world – whether in its raw or digitally processed state – plays such an important role that it becomes more than a mere backdrop. It sets the tone in opening sequences, immediately transporting the viewer to another world, a faraway paradise – the landscape is the star. In their previous film , which screened at IDFA in 2011, artist duo Persijn Broersen and Margit Lukács tackled Walt Disney’s first full-length cartoon, removing all the animal protagonists to reveal the first virtual landscape. They do something similar in with the nature of New Zealand, which the entertainment industry is now propagating as a veritable Eden. Here, however, the image is fragmented, splintered into two-dimensional surfaces that slide past one another. Paradise is a seductive construction that could explode at any moment.