House of Salt is an immersive collaboration between fashion designer duo MARTAN, writer/director Willem Gerritsen and composer Raphael Vanoli (with the Asko Schonberg Ensemble). The result is a short film in which three art forms melt together in a unique way, working side-by-side in synchronicity.

 

Initially the story is inspired by a mysterious ‘piano man’ who washed ashore in Kent in 2005. He walked the streets of the town in a soaking wet suit. Being unable to speak he was brought to the local hospital where he expressed himself only through piano playing. House of Salt takes this peculiar event to a more abstract level and sets out to investigate the themes of xenophobia and identity in human group behavior. We follow a man who seems to be forever dripping with water, who meets a group of people that won’t recognize his presence and pretend he’s simply not there. The film follows the man’s struggle to become part of the others and learns what he must give up to do so.

 

House of Salt is a visual exploration of the underlying psychological systems at play in xenophobic behavior. How do people create a unified identity and why does excluding the other help doing this? It’s a film that intends to provoke thoughts and associations, rather than giving you straight up answers and is filled with symbolism and philosophical references. The sea is a reoccurring motif that is juxtaposed with the salt that is used to ‘dry’ people. Here MARTAN’s collection is the key to understanding the backstory of the characters: as they all seem to have different degrees of wetness or dryness; the audience is hinted they we’re all ‘born’ from the sea and washed ashore as the stranger. A story that represents each and every human life.