The Ebinum Brothers’ journey inward

Juxtaposing gorgeous natural landscapes and unsettling urban scenes, this captivating promo, directed by Benjamin Nicolas through Sibling Rivalry, follows performance duo Ebinum Brothers as they embark on a spiritual transformative journey. 

Titled A Better World, the dark and contemplative project opens with the pair on a misty hillside. Their fuchsia hair glows fluorescent against the damp and earthy backdrop where they dance in unison, as if one single entity, before being transported into the contrastingly harsh, LED-lit glow of a pie and mash shop at night, where things start to get...weird. 

Shot on Sony FX3 cameras, the promo is rich with metaphors and motifs; the scarab beetle is a recurring image, which in Egyptian mythology is believed to roll the sun across the sky, symbolising the cycle of life, death, and renewal, while the green bodily fluid bleeding from the character's orifices is representative of man's relationship with the Earth.  

“If I can, I want to make films that make people think, or rethink, about their lives: for the Ebinum Brothers film, I didn’t just want to – I had to. They obviously have a strong look and we were shooting them in beautiful scenery, but that wasn’t enough. I wanted to keep it poetic and metaphorical, but also make something that has meaning; giving a sense of hope – showing the power of music and dance and art in the process of self-reconstruction,” added the director. 

“We consider this project the perfect collaboration because it was a true meeting of minds,” say the Ebinum Brothers. “The story we wanted to tell and the essence of who we are were flawlessly brought to life in the video. Benjamin's direction and artistic vision combined with our own resulted in a piece that not only conveyed our message but also embodied our identity.”