This film is based on the Slavic myth of the Sirin and Alkonost birds.

These two divine beings embody opposing yet interconnected forces: one descends from heaven, the other rises from hell. Once a year, they meet upon a tree between worlds. One brings joy and harmony, the other sorrow and decay; together, they reflect a single essence. In this project, the two mythic entities are merged into a single hybrid bird, representing the coexistence of both forces within a single being. This concept is portrayed through a unified costume and performance, with the character shifting fluidly between Sirin and Alkonost states.

The dual bird symbolises cycles of death and regeneration. The costume acts as a vessel for transformation and a landscape of meaning, tracing the bird’s journey through contamination and healing. The main character is first encountered in the Sirin state, immobilised beneath a hardened, oil-spill cocoon that evokes ecological trauma and paralysis. Through gradual effort, the toxic layer is shed, revealing a luminous body reminiscent of the kingfisher Alkonost state.

In the final stage, the discarded residue is not rejected but absorbed and transformed, situating the myth within the Anthropocene, where nature, damage, and responsibility are inseparable.

These images document Act 1 of the film.

The story is set in the misty, contaminated Sirin world. The main character, the kingfisher (Alkonost), is trapped inside the (Sirin) oil-spill cocoon. This form is at once protective and imprisoning. The kingfisher, surrounded by a polluted landscape, is weighed down by a sense of defeat and hopelessness.

As the photographs follow the transformation shown in the film, the bird’s initial struggle is marked by hesitation and paralysis. Slowly, the kingfisher’s determination builds; it resists the cocoon, pressing its wings outward. A first crack forms, bringing a flicker of anticipation. One wing slips through, and rapid bursts of effort follow. The kingfisher breaks free, stretches its wings, rises, and sheds the cocoon piece by piece. Despair shifts to liberation and renewed hope, as movement triumphs over stillness.

The following images document Act 2 of the film.

The setting is the bird-habitat utopia of the Alkonost world. Free from the oily cocoon, the kingfisher starts moving like a bird again. Tentative at first, each movement reflects its uncertainty, gradually shifting from hesitation to fragile joy as it relearns to control its body and beat its wings after long confinement.

As the act unfolds, the character slowly integrates back into the natural world. With time, the kingfisher grows bolder. Wings spread wider, movements become more confident, and the body begins to circle through space with increasing ease. This physical transformation mirrors an emotional one: uncertainty shifts into tentative hope, then surges into exhilaration. The Alkonost reconnects with the joy and delirium of existing in its natural state.

These final images document Act 3 of the Sirin & Alkonost film.

Set as a return to the contaminated Sirin world. The main character, the kingfisher (Alkonost), begins to explore its surroundings and encounters the discarded shells of its former (Sirin) oil-spill cocoon. What once served as a form of confinement now becomes an object of curiosity.

The bird approaches the fragments slowly, pecking at them, examining their texture, and interacting with them through play. As the act unfolds, the setting shifts into a space between the Sirin and Alkonost worlds. The kingfisher chooses to place the fragments back onto its body as a new form of armour. In this final transformation, the bird merges sustainably with the remnants of contamination. The film concludes with the kingfisher soaring upward into the sky, with oil-spill shells trailing from its wings.

The selected portfolio pages from the Sirin & Alkonost project bring together the core concepts explored in the film and its world-building process. The pages include key visual references for filmmaking and backdrop research that informed the creation of the Sirin and Alkonost world sets through projections and layered LED lighting. The portfolio also presents distinct world boards alongside visual character boards for the Sirin oil-spill cocoon character, the Alkonost kingfisher bird character, and several secondary figures, including the prophetic Gamayun bird and the Bereginya bird, foremother of all avian beings. The portfolio process pages documented early design development through research collages, pencil sketches, colour palette studies, material sampling, and silhouette experimentation, all of which were critical in shaping the Sirin & Alkonost world and the characters that inhabit it.