Häxan

Benjamin Christensen’s disorienting and wildly inventive 1922 doc/fiction hybrid charts the history of ancient sorcery and demonology.

Through a series of striking vignettes, traversing various cinematic styles (from documentary and essay film to horror and the avant-garde), Benjamin Christensen’s disorienting doc/fiction hybrid charts the history of ancient sorcery and demonology, before suggesting a link between those persecuted for witchcraft and people living with neurological conditions. Formally daring and wildly inventive, even by today’s standards, a hundred years on and there is still nothing else quite like it.

The score is written by Matti Bye, in collaboration with Kristian Holmgren, Lotta Johansson and Lau Nakkarinen. It was first performed live at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä, Finland, in June 2006.