Marrying mime and cinema, Stigmata relays the story of a man who loses everything as he day-dreams his way through life.

Adam Darius plays an impoverished traveller making his way through an Irish and inner landscape. Against this background he re-enacts stages of his past life and comes to see himself as a kind of harlequin Christ figure. But will he find that the sufferings of the world fall on his own shoulders accordingly? Immerse yourself in his expressive gestures as you follow the ecstasies and agonies of his journey set to Stellan Benson’s electronic sound track. 

 

Anthony Keane - along with star performer, Adam Darius - developed this scenario without words. If you find Kate Bush pops into your mind during this film that might be because she used the sizable advance for her first record from EMI to train in mime with Darius. Expressive mime is certainly an unusual spectacle in this landscape however it is part of a rich on-going tradition of experimental performance occupying public space through art and theatre in Northern Ireland. Darius’s topless dancing may have passed without controversy when filmed in 1968, however, in 2011, Alan Graham, farmer and county Down DUP councillor, put a stop to pop star Rihanna filming her music video in his barley field when he saw her dancing topless. 

Stina Newkirk Productions

Adam Darius - Performer / Producer / Scenario

Anthony Keane - Producer / Scenario (Scriptwriter)

Stellan Benson - Music

Dave Wallace - Camera

Martin Perrett - Camera Assistant

John Page - Camera  Assistant

Margaret Dunbar - Editor

Nathanial Norwood - Costume Supervisor

Allison Aitkenhead - Continuity

Judith Elliott - Continuity

John Denison-Hunt - Titles

• Britain on Film
• BFI Player