Daphne was a torso ending in leaves

Daphne was a torso ending in leaves has its origins in a Greek tale most famously retold in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Taking the classical source material as inspiration, Catriona Gallagher has created an almost wordless essay film that acts as an ode to Daphne both in her original form as a nymph and her subsequent life as the laurel tree. Shot on grainy 16mm that was developed in a solution containing bay leaves, Gallagher’s film takes a particularly embodied story and crafts a haptic cinematic experience that communes with it.

In the original tale of Daphne and Apollo, the latter – the Olympian God of archery, poetry, prophesy, and more – became infatuated with the nymph, Daphne, after being struck by Eros’ arrow. A virginal follower of Artemis, Daphne was determined to reject his advances and fled. Alas, Apollo chased and, when eventually beginning to tire, Daphne beseeched her father to use his magic to destroy her beauty. She was immediately transformed into a laurel tree.

Laurel makes up the subject on which Gallagher’s camera is most often trained – whether that be direct images of shrubbery and foliage, motifs in art and architecture, the wearing of wreaths, or even the use of bay leaves (Laurus nobilis) to cultivate the celluloid on which the film was captured. Interspersed with these images are glimpses of the myth itself, recorded on amphora and architectural friezes and Bernini’s famous sculpture. All the while, they are accompanied by a text that recounts the myth but interrogates the ways in which Daphne’s story and her dendriform body have been claimed and co-opted.

Daphne’s act of refusal was in some ways undone: “Daphne was seen to consent… Daphne became symbol anyway… Daphne was made grotesque.” Aided by Alyssa Moxley’s crackling, scratching, breathy soundtrack Gallagher’s images feel like an invocation of reclamation, which Daphne’s leaves have helped to conjure and through which her roots are reaching out.

Director, producer, cinematography, editing: Catriona Gallagher
Music, sound design: Alyssa Moxley
Sales: Catriona Gallagher
Venue: International Film Festival Rotterdam (Tiger Short Competition)
No dialogue (text in English)
13 minutes