"Painted in silence a sparrow’s dream invokes timeless harmonies. In the heart of universal geometry, the seed of calm is formed." Otonashi is a philosophical voyage through inner and outer experiences of the human existence – an audiovisual meditation of futuristic transmutations about the Japanese Hannya Shingyo.

Director's Statement:

“Form is emptiness” is probably the best-known basis and illumination of Buddhist philosophy, the essence of the so-called Heart Sutra. Translated from Sanskrit into Chinese and later transliterated into Japanese language, the Heart Sutra is known as Hannya Shingyō | 般若心経 in Japan and is recited by millions of Buddhists today.

I first came into contact with the Heart Sutra in my youth during my time in China. One cannot escape the beauty and clarity of its content, regardless of whether one feels drawn to Buddhism or not. It wasn't until much later, during my travels to Japan, that I encountered the Heart Sutra again, during a nightly ceremony in Okunoin on Mount Koya. This deeply emotional experience inspired me to write a music composition, a piece for solo violin and percussion. I named the piece “Otonashi” - which can best be translated as “silence” in terms of “soundlessness” - to express the essential equality of sound and silence from a Buddhist point of view. The violin has to use special techniques throughout the composition in order to move away from the typical violin sound and sound more like a Japanese flute called shakuhachi. The percussion has exactly the opposite role here: opulent soundscapes are created from more soundless noises.

I've known Nikola Gocić's works of art for quite a while and I really appreciate his extraordinary style. He manages to generate amazement and emotions again and again through his collages. There is a peculiar magic inherent in his art, a surreal beauty and aesthetics that awakens inner stories to be told.

In the autumn of 2020, Nikola published a collage with the title "The Second Name of Serenity". It shows a sparrow in the midst of a surreal landscape of abstract elements. From my point of view, a masterpiece that directly captivates the viewer. The geometry of the work immediately reminded me of the typical structure of Japanese haiku poetry. So I contacted Nikola to ask him to collaborate on the cinematic implementation of "Otonashi". He immediately agreed and a wonderful and inspiring, sometimes almost telepathic collaboration emerged, one that still has a positive effect on me.

A total of 11 collages were created, which I then tried to subtly animate, reshape and edit in an abstract-narrative manner. I used large parts of my original composition for this. With each collage, however, the geometry, shape and color of the composition had to be partly rewritten or completely adapted. A reverse synaesthetic work flow, which was a new and very exciting experience for me as a composer.

The result is a visualization of the sound and a sounding of the visible in order to reveal the ethereal world behind substance and phenomena. A philosophical journey through inner and outer worlds of experience of the human being - an audio-visual meditation of futuristic transmutations on the Japanese Hannya Shingyō |般若心経, a meditation about the existence and non-existence of things.