There are sinister airport queues, a choreographed fight sequence, a barefoot dance scene set to 1920s jazz, and a romantic interlude amidst crashing waves on a beach – that’s a lot for one fashion film.
“Miuccia Prada challenged me to make a work of cinema, like a dream, fuelled by strange mystery, suspense, fear, danger, beauty, conflict, romance, love, identity, and time,” said Russell. “Here was the opportunity to make a journey guided by layers of movie memories, life images and emotions, with no aim except to create art — as if it were a painting or a sculpture — free from normal narrative or audience expectations. The cast and I worked simply for the joy of making art.”
Russell named Alfred Hitchcock’s classic North by Northwest and the disturbing work of Franz Kafka as influences for the film, as well as automatic writing popularised by André Breton, Robert Desnos, and their Surrealist 1920s contemporaries as references seen in the film.