Behind the Scenes: The Innocents

On a sea-green lawn, amidst pink-orange foliage and crimson hedges with hints of purple hues, odd figures frolic in eccentric outfits and feathered masks. They drink tea, play games, and explore the leafy maze that seems to dominate their world. Every now and again, a pretty china set, a metronome or a pair of garden shears might appear within a scene. There seems to be no predetermined route through this labyrinth, no exit, no prospect of leaving. Is theirs an existence of idle pleasure or desperation? The viewer is as displaced as the protagonists, who simply seem to make the best of their situation.

The perfect location was sourced in the form of private grounds in Greenwich, Connecticut, where the crew completed the shoot on a single autumn day in 2018. The post-production process, on the other hand, took a great deal longer. “The recolouring of the trees and bushes was very time-consuming and had to be handled carefully, so that it was not too heavy and also looked actually possible. We were able to push the files to such extremes because of the latitude of the raw files.”