Private Project

Soap&Skin - Girl Loves Me

“Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me:
There lie they, and here lie we
Under the spreading chestnut tree.”
George Orwell

To look at the outside world from your hideout, while madness reigns around you. Emotionally in the thick of it, yet fully paralyzed and sinking into inaction. Spinning and spiraling.
A harbor, a safe place, yet a deadly prison at the same time.
Does "breaking out" mean committing to the direct opposite state of being? Surrendering to the allure of chaos? Tying oneself to the unstoppable pull of destructive stimulation?
Two relationship models, two spheres of consciousness, collide, leaving behind hollow shells clinging to themselves while wandering off into the dark night.

We encounter a person encased in a chestnut tree. This evokes ancient mythical symbolism and metaphors, like Artemis, the goddess of the forest, who transformed herself into a chestnut tree to escape the desires of Zeus.
The tree was named “chestnut” because Artemis remained chaste. To Christians, the plant became a symbol of hidden virtue, righteousness, and honesty, while also symbolizing fertility.
George Orwell famously picked up on this in 1984, with the rebellious “chestnut-tree café” and the quote:
“Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me.”
We meet a frail old man, moving and acting in strange ways. He seems to exist only as a vision, peeking outside of a tree hole. A fantasy? A ghost? There is a strong resemblance to the late David Bowie. But is it him?
Or could it be the madman from One Hundred Years of Solitude, who was tied to the said tree until he died?

“Where the fuck did Monday go?
I'm cold to this pig and pug show
I'm sitting in the chestnut tree
Who the fuck's gonna mess with me?”
David Bowie

And finally, we race with a giant, alluring, but apocalyptic monster of steel. Smashing and flattening everything that cannot escape its enormous wheels. Never stopping, marching on and on — day and night — while carrying us with it.
Ultimately, this monster will eat the tree, and the circle of life will abruptly be interrupted.

  • Ioan Gavriel
    Director
  • Anja Franziska Plaschg
    Director
  • Ioan Gavriel
    Writer
  • Anja Franziska Plaschg
    Writer
  • Ioan Gavriel
    Producer
  • Fjodor Carl Kelling
    Producer
  • Michael Thomaschek
    Producer
  • Juned Khan
    Producer
  • Sabine Tatzgern
    Producer
  • Anja Plaschg
    Key Cast
    "Viktor"
    Rathbone
  • Ioan Gavriel
    Cinematography
  • Noushin Redjaian
    Production Design
  • Fjodor Carl Kelling
    Co- & 2nd Unit Director
  • Completion Date:
    October 16, 2024
  • Country of Origin:
    Austria
  • Language:
    English
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ioan Gavriel, Anja Franziska Plaschg

Soap&Skin is the experimental musical project of Austrian artist Anja Plaschg. She recorded four internationally successful albums and two film scores.
In additional to her musical career she is a film actress and musicvideo director.

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