Deep West (1996)

It happened out west, it happened one night. It happened between dusk and dawn, [no one is quite sure]. It happened when everything was wet, when the world was full of wind, when the boughs of the trees scooped low to whisper insanities. "Deep West", inspired by Lee Eisler's wild childhood in the trees, explores life on the edge of the Pacific, life in a rainforest so lush you can't find your way through the undergrowth so you go deeper - deeper west.

Three men stumble through the forest, tired and drunk, looking for a fast route to their parked car, they stumble and weave their way through trees and dense fern - pant legs sodden, feet turning pasty grey and wrinkled. If only they knew that their car is only 50 feet away. Through her setscape, designer Nicola Kozakiewicz conveys the smallness of men against these monoliths whose leaves reach upwards to the piercing sun. The forest speaks but they cannot decipher the language.

Light and dance intermingle in this impressionistic work that uses the exterior landscape to reach the interior soul of a civilization born in the rain. Beginning with hilarious comedy, "Deep West" escalates to expose the primitiveness of the human animal and the harsh brutality of nature lying just below the surface of this lush beauty. The men's world is turned upside down when Saskia's delicate figure emerges through the boughs. She knows the secrets of survival in this decaying, predatory environment. She alone listens to the whispering forest. She drives the men into a dance of confusion. They pit their strength, pulling and flinging their bodies until they collapse in helpless exhaustion. They are alone. It begins to snow.

Saskia begins to dance.