Floria Sigismondi first worked with Sigur Ros ten years ago – her classic video for Untitled. And now she joins Sigur Ros’ Valtari Mystery Film Experiment for it’s final installment, with her 12 minute short, Leaning Towards Solace – set to the Sigur Ros’ tracks Dauðalogn and Varúð from the Valtari album.

It features Elle Fanning as Sara, the pixie-like, pirouetting daughter of a self-doubting, hard-drinking father played by John Hawkes (he of Winter’s Bone and other fine films). Against the backdrop of a desolate desert-set slum, we see their relationship, overshadowed by his imminent death, revealed at a dream-like pace.

Above the actors terrific performances, Floria adds a subtle voice-over and an ambiguous and interesting narrative to the grand soundscapes of the Icelandic band. “Sigur Ros’ music always evokes a strong emotional feeling in me,” she says. “This film is about the fine line between keeping it together and the feeling of helplessness when life just doesn’t work any longer.

“The story is not only about sorrow, but about hope, love and the loss of fear, rebirth and reincarnation. The idea that we possibly have travelled through time with the same souls in different roles.”

Sigur Ros
Leaning Towards Solace
Director: Floria Sigismondi
Girl: Elle Fanning
Father: John Hawkes
Baby: Ever Rabineau
Producer: Coleen Haynes
Exec Producer: Jules Daly
DP: Starr Whitesides
Production Designer: David Wilson
Hair: Benjamin Mohapi
Stylist: Marjan Malakpour
Make Up: Erin Ayanian-Monroe
Prod Company: Black Dog Films