Byredo's scents working overtime

“This body is made of star-crossed lovers desperately trying to live together,” so speaks one of the artists in this heart-stoppingly gorgeous film commissioned by Byredo and produced by Smuggler. 

Part of a poem by Kai-Isaiah Jamal, the words express the search for identity of young minds battling against conformity, attempting to be truly seen and accepted, yet also celebrating their uniqueness. 

Though inner conflict is expressed, chiming with Mixed Emotions concept, the film, titled Tall Are the Roots, has an overarching tone of fluidity and harmony, the choreography by Abdourahman Njie flows like liquid, a visual metaphor for the fragrance. 

Written, directed and edited by uber-talented London-based Black British filmmaker Fenn O’Meally, it is a feast for the senses – the camera lingers over the dancers’ satin flesh, the patterns of architectural flourishes, the play of light and shade in nature. One's ears are bathed by heavenly music – from Volta Jazz and LU, with some banging double bass from Djenaba Davis-Eyo 'Damsel' – while honeyed words speak of the “sound of my soul”. 

Endlessly morphing and flowing between narrative, dance and song it ends with a powerful message: a letter from Athian Akec, teenage activist and Youth MP for London's Camden, who eloquently describes how we are at a crossroads in history. The pandemic, climate crisis and awareness of the scale of global economic and racial inequality must propel us to strive for a better reality; “ each generation has its purpose and ours is to drastically and radically change the course of the earth.”