Maya Deren (1917-1961) was an influential experimental filmmaker whose short film Meshes of the Afternoon  helped pave the way for other surrealist filmmakers, most notably David Lynch. Deren’s short film At Land follows an unnamed young woman who finds herself stranded somewhere on a beach. Her exploration of this land and journey through the island’s vegetation are shown alongside contrasting images of her being surrounded by an aristocratic family, and, at one point, crawling on a table at that family’s dinner and then exploring that room through the eyes of an outsider. Perhaps that hints at the human disconnect between our innate state of being and living close to nature and the rigid, artificial positions in the society that we are all forced to adopt in our daily life. The film then proceeds to emphasise through its images the themes of freedom and constraint, escape and confinement, repose and struggle, and hope and despair.

At Land is all about the dual nature of the universe and our dual roles in it, and its unnerving music makes for one hallucinatory, unforgettable viewing experience. Interestingly, the film scene where a game of chess is being played on the beach will also later probably inspire Bergman in his own masterpiece The Seventh Seal, where a similar scene is also used to a great effect, including to instil the idea of life being linked to randomness and chance.