From the Film Maker

Bellini’s powerful picture is a striking portrayal of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. I was drawn to the painting due to its strong composition and colouring and I was intrigued by the hidden imagery and ancient symbolism. The way the baby is sleeping on Mary’s lap signifies the Pietà, where Jesusʼ dead body is laid across his mother’s lap. My modern-day depiction explores this feeling of inevitable tragedy between mother and child. The final scene creates a relatively literal interpretation set in the present. The bird fighting the snake represents the struggle of good and evil, mirrored in the film by the policemen as a symbol of what is right and wrong, as the young mother is torn between morals and her instinct to want to be close to her child. The black vulture in the tree signifies death, echoed in the film by the sense of the evident painful ending of their relationship.

Kyla Simone Bruce

A piece inspired by Giovanni Bellini, Madonna of the Meadow, about 1500