Synopsis

White Lies perform on a rocky hillside as a procession of solemn figures gathers around them, giving the band the appearance of preachers addressing a congregation. Around this central tableau, the video moves through a series of surreal images: a white horse, scantily clad bodies, slow-motion movement, a street fight and an infrared-lit embrace. The religious imagery and physical unease mirror the song's dark sensuality. In its closing passage, the video abandons the performers and lingers on stark mountain landscapes, turning the climax into an extended, dreamlike vision.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was released in June 2011 to promote "Holy Ghost" as a single from White Lies' second album, "Ritual."

• The production was associated with Partizan, with art direction by Anna Colomer and styling by Xenia Gasull.

• Its visual language was widely compared with a surreal European art film from the 1970s, rather than a conventional band performance video.

• White Lies' hillside performance is staged like a biblical sermon, with the surrounding figures functioning as a group of disciples.

• The video's imagery includes horse symbolism, infrared photography, a fight involving a crowd, erotic physicality and deliberately abrupt shifts in tone.

• The closing section spends more than a minute showing mountain scenery without the band. This unusually long landscape passage occupies roughly a quarter of the video and deliberately breaks from standard pop-video structure.

• "Holy Ghost" was also one of three "Ritual" tracks used in an accompanying short film, alongside "Bad Love" and "Bigger Than Us."