Deep Dive – a journey for two around a trauma that must be confronted

Deep Dive is an intimate virtual reality storytelling experience in which we wander with Magda on a wild riverbank. Her daughter’s unexpected cry for help brings her back to her goal. She pursues it, but the river cannot be overcome. In a moment of heartbreak, an amazing encounter occurs. Magda’s mother walks up to her. Uplifted, Magda begins to lead her through fantastic thickets and gloomy trees in search of a passage. Mother watches her daughter mysteriously, but does not help her. The only way back is in their past and leads the woman to confront her deepest fears and regrets.

Out of love for her own child, Magda faces the most painful loss of her life by wandering the wild riverbank where fears and hopes mingle with reality.

Grief is a powerful emotional experience, a process that changes us. Deep Dive is the story of Magda, who is going through a pivotal moment of mourning for her mother. Being a young mother herself, her experiences with her mother mirror her current situation. A reflection that forces her to confront her own fears, regrets and hopes. This scheme allows us to focus on what builds and what counters Magda’s strength as a woman.

The set design is a metaphor for Magda’s emotional world. We wander with her through this world to the rhythm of her experiences. Deep Dive’s narrative challenge is to use the power of virtual reality to create a sense of presence in this world in the audience that is simultaneously consistent with Magda’s story and emotions. To this end, camera movements and editing were worked on together with choreographer Eliza Rudzińska and cinematographer Yann Seweryn using principles of movement psychology. The theme and the way the story is told create an experience of a psychological fairy tale maintained in an atmosphere of magical realism.