Todorusale

Piece (planned as a diptych) for Radiana Pit's video on the Rusalii and Sântoaderii, Romanian feminine and masculine spirits, respectively, who meet on Todorusale (between Easter and Pentecost). Despite their differences, Rusalii being mostly aerial, lunar and similar to fairies and ghosts, while Sântoaderii are related to horses and iron, they share the night, the liminal space between holy days and living in homosocial groups. This last detail gave me an excellent excuse to add in some gay because I refuse to see groups of supernatural revelry as straight (trust me, gay is in, gay is hot, I want some gay, gay it's gonna be). We discussed working in this style because, although it lives little room for details (the flowers, for instance, cannot really be identified despite being Melittis melissophyllum) it creates an atmosphere of eeriness and otherness we felt quite fitting. I still tried to keep some of the crucial details mentioned in Romanian folklore, such as the graves, veils for the Rusalii and the hooves, cloaks, drums, chains, manes and large teeth for the Sântoaderii.