From the Film Maker...

The main theme of my film is madness induced by solitude and incarceration.

The painting is based on a comedy by Antonio de Zamora. Picatoste warns Don Claudio (the main figure in the painting) that Lucia is a sorceress in league with the devil. He tells him that he will live only as long as the lamp is alight.  Every night Lucia takes an ointment out of a phial which makes her go into a trance and then she 'goes through the roof'.

I combined this story with ideas from the legend of Robert Johnson, the Delta Blues guitarist of the 1930s. Johnson allegedly made a pact with the devil, selling his soul in order to become the world’s greatest guitarist.

The painted donkeys emerging from the darkness inspired me to have the character of Bobby emerging in the same way.
James Davis