From the Film Maker...

I loved the colours - the oranges and reds - and the idea of the relationship between the two women; someone who has another woman to brush her hair for her.

I used an orange and red colour palette in my film, with little touches of green and white. For the colours of the walls and the actresses’ hair, orange back-lights make the red hair stand out and create an orange halo around the girls.

I recreated the painting entirely in one scene. I have one actress brushing the other’s hair in the same position as in the painting. I tried to mimic what was on the table in the painting and the general mood. I wanted to suggest the late 19th century but I also used some modern props to create a non-specific time period.

I concentrated on a theme of obsession and servitude muddled with love and fetishism; also the idea that you can live your life vicariously through an obsession with somebody else.
Alexandra McGuiness