Lucifer is the first circular feature film, shot in Tondoscope. A format developed especially for the film. Some scenes are shot in a 360° catadioptric mirror, to create a wide totaliaristic feeling, translating the concept of a closed paradise into a simple image. Renaissance painters and the way they used their tools were the main inspiration for this process.
Lucifer is the third part of a triptych, after Little baby Jesus of Flandr (2010) and Blue Bird (2011).
The action of the film takes place on Earth and not in Heaven as in the original play. Lucifer - once God's favorite - has been banished and is on his way to Hell. He is no longer an angel, but isn't yet a devil and is therefore never depicted as such in the film. He was the first being to carry within himself both the knowledge of good and of evil. It is Lucifer who gave us this knowledge. And therefore it is he who is responsible for the original sin and also for the emergence of human free-will and consciousness.
The film was shot in Mexico, near Parícutin, the youngest volcano on earth. In the village where the film was shot time stands still, and beliefs and age-old traditions have not changed, while all the surrounding villages are changing with the times. It is a place that is holding out, while at the same time waiting to cave-in. This duality is what made the director want to situate Lucifer's story here.
The film was shot in a circular format because according to the director, paradise is enclosed, with Heaven at its center. The approach is philosophical, connecting the micro cosmos with the macro cosmos: we look at the world, as if from heaven, we see it in its true planetary form. At the same time we find ourselves looking at the world through a periscope, and experiencing it as molecular tissue.