From the film-maker:

I have chosen a portrait of Princess Pauline de Metternich, the wife of an Austro-Hungarian ambassador at the court of Napoleon III, by Edgar Degas. The painting has a photographic quality and was in fact made from an old photograph, rather than directly from the subject. I was fascinated by her eyes and used that in my film as a metaphor for a person’s identity. The film is a journey through a girl’s aspiration to be like everyone around her, her nostalgia for where she belongs and finally her attempts to be at one with her new surroundings. The film is an abstract interpretation of self-identity and the adjustments we all make in ourselves on a daily basis to be accepted.

Gauri Bajaj

A piece inspired by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas: Princess Pauline de Metternich, about 1865