F MAJOR

F MAJOR is a music film by Paris-based director and photographer Neels Castillon, created for Polish pianist and composer Hania Rani. Set on the remote black-sand shores of Iceland, the film brings together Rani’s piano performance and contemporary dance against a vast, almost otherworldly landscape. Rather than treating the setting as a backdrop, Castillon makes the landscape part of the performance itself, allowing the wind, mountains, cold and open space to shape the rhythm of the film.

The film unfolds as a single continuous sequence shot, with the camera moving alongside Rani and dancers Mellina Boubetra, Janina Sarantšina and Fanny Sage. The decision was closely tied to the music: Castillon wanted the camera to mirror the uninterrupted flow of Rani’s composition, creating a feeling that neither the music nor the image ever truly comes to a stop. The dancers were given the freedom to develop their own interpretations of the piece, turning the sequence into a fluid exchange between music, movement and camera.

The apparent calm of F MAJOR conceals an exceptionally demanding production. The film was shot in temperatures of around minus seven degrees Celsius, with strong winds and an ice storm sweeping across the location. After extensive rehearsals, the team had only three takes on the beach due to the changing light and severe weather conditions. The resulting performance carries some of that physical tension: the dancers' movement feels light and weightless, while the environment remains stark, cold and immense.

The project also reflects Castillon’s wider approach to filmmaking, which places collaboration at the centre of the process. He first discovered Rani through Gondwana Records and spent months listening to F MAJOR before developing the concept, eventually working closely with the musicians, dancers and choreographer to shape the film together. Across his work, Castillon moves between commercial films, music videos and more personal projects, often using ambitious physical productions to explore the relationship between performers and their surroundings. With F MAJOR, that ambition is distilled into something remarkably simple: a pianist, three dancers, one uninterrupted movement and the elemental landscape of Iceland.