Synopsis

In a surreal city where bizarre transformations pass as ordinary, a young man becomes fixated on a mysterious woman whose impossibly elongated legs and neck make her both alluring and unsettling. He pursues her through an increasingly strange landscape, while his own identity is obscured by a box-like head displaying shifting images of his face. Their attraction develops like a waking nightmare, combining grotesque visual effects with a strangely tender search for connection. The video turns romantic obsession into an offbeat fantasy world that feels part fairy tale, part freak show.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was made for "Hurting," a track from Friendly Fires' 2011 album *Pala*. The song represented a more soulful and expansive direction for the band than their earlier high-energy singles.

• The production combined live-action photography with elaborate visual effects, 3D modeling, matchmoving, graphic animation and compositing.

• The unusual headpiece worn by the male character was designed to display changing images of his face on its stitched-together surfaces.

• Much of the video's distinctive lighting was created in camera. Small strips of LiteRibbon and LiteCards were attached to a balaclava, allowing the lighting to move with the performer.

• The video's deliberately matter-of-fact treatment of its grotesque imagery was widely compared to a nightmare, with critics noting echoes of Tim Burton, David Lynch and Michel Gondry.

• Friendly Fires frontman Ed Macfarlane was credited as the video's producer.