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The story:

The clip shows a symbolic story of one man’s life’s final moments from the perspective of within the mind. Though its progression, the main character goes through steps to free himself from certain characteristics that all humans share in order to gain true insight before the end. Firstly, he gives up the pest-like nature of the human species, the innate tendency to recklessly multiply and consume the resources of his surroundings. Secondly, he gives up the innate hatred, bitterness, traumas and other blinding detriments to the rational mind.

After this, he becomes able to dream of freeing himself from the boundaries of time and space; to evade his destiny to eventually die. Simultaneously, the pain brought by the process of dying maims his body, and due to his inability to properly understand the situation, interprets his anguish as the result of the wrath of a religious deity; a projected outside assailant and authority.

In vain he struggles and suffers, until nature takes its due course; ending pain and relieving man from his physical prison; free from time and space. In the climax of life’s tragicomedy; man finally sees the world for what it is; at the final instant before oblivion. He is free; to die.

The symbols:

Blindfolds in the mud: Struggling in the gruelling mud of life, man blindfolds his eyes. In reference to Immanuel Kant’s philosophy, man as a physical being cannot see the world for what it truly is in itself; he is bound to his own time, his own space, hindered by the limits of his senses.

The insect and the dagger: In his fist he holds that hunger of pests; the desire for more than he can master; more than nature can uphold. In his heart, he carries the burden of his hardships; hatred, bitterness and other hindrances. With these gone, these burdens bleeding from his soul, his mind becomes capable to truly dream.

Waking to the light, chained: He dreams to see the world like a god would; free from the chains that bind him to the unyielding stone that is time. He struggles in vain against his destiny to die, trying to find a way to become more than is in his nature.

Masked tormentor: Meanwhile, in the real world around him, his body begins to draw closer to death. This brings with it pain, and man, in his folly, cannot see the cause of this pain for what it really is due to the blindfolds of his senses. So he projects the source of the pain to an outsider; religion. Dressed in royal purple, yet also the liturgical colour of Easter, the faceless divine punisher whips man. His mask is of precious silver but without emotion, wearing intricate jewellery that shines cold in the dark.

The girl: Yet through the pain and vain struggle, nature watches over man, in silence; carrying a light, that wisdom which man cannot yet see due to his still-living state. Her clothes are black, the colour that stands for fertile soil in the colour-symbolism of American Indians, one of the few people who actually knew of balance with nature, yet the colour of death in Western view; the Grim Reaper and the giver of life in one. Life of balance, death of imbalance. Also, a veil of red covers her shoulders, hinting of the blood, the physical gift that nature has given us; the passions driving us forward. Finally, at the instant before death, this pure essence removes man’s blindfolds. Life flashes before his eyes, and he can finally see, if just for an instant...