Ouroboros

2011, 10 minutes

OUROBOROS is a short film written and directed by Matthew Hammett Knott, and starring Anamaria Marinca.

Damien lives in a room filled with geckos and a chameleon that refuses to mate. Most girls would run a mile, but Eva, his latest one-night stand, doesn’t seem to want to leave. OUROBOROS is the story of their relationship over a single day, told through a perplexing split narrative. In one version, Damien is heading out to purchase the rare python he has dreamed of owning. In another, Eva is selling just such a python from Damien’s front room, without his knowledge. As the narratives diverge, their tones become more and more at odds, with the former unfolding as a tender romance, and the latter an absurd black comedy. Neon illuminated tanks and artificial sunlight clash with kaleidoscopic reptile skins, fragile human bodies and an increasingly enigmatic tattoo. Bittersweet, funny and unendingly strange, OUROBOROS is a weird and wonderful hymn to the truths that emerge when man and beast live under one roof.

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