Alt-J have dropped a brand new video to accompany their new single ‘Pleader’, taken from their most recent album ‘Relaxer’.
Directed by award-winning director Isaiah Seret, the short film stars Sophie Cookson (Gypsy, Kingsman) and Morgan Watkins (A Little Chaos, Suffragette) and was filmed in the Rhonda Valley in South Wales.
Chronicling life from birth to death – including real birth footage lifted from an experimental film by Stan Brakhage from 1959 – you can check it out below.
“When we set out to make a video for ‘Pleader’,” alt-J explained to NPR. “Joe sent the following one line brief to director Isaiah Seret: “a Welsh mining love story; a tidal wave of earth.” What Isaiah came back with was an epic short film, inspired both by the song’s source material and Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice. A family must pit their desire to have a child against the knowledge that this would destroy their community. The hypnotic, hymnal quality of the song binds the video throughout, hinting at redemption while destruction takes place.”