My roots being in theater, with its bold presentation of character, situation and raw emotion, I fin dit a natural source of research. In 1971, I discovered the French play « Toi et tes nuages » by Eric Westphal, and was wholly captivated by the bizarre relationship between two sisters living a symbiotic, hermetic existence in the shadow of their dead father. It was a director’s goldmine, crying for a full scale, big screen treatment. The piece offered the chance to confront life’s dualities, a consuming interest for me. « The Mafu Cage » explores the classic and the primitive, contemporary and primordial, sun and clouds, animal and human, woman and woman and man. Disecting the sisters’ relationship, I looked for the psychological motivation that made their unusual situation real. I found them helplessly entangled in a « folie à deux ». Their further breakdown turned up the underbelly, or the dark side of character, another fascination for me. The subject was irresistible. Karen ARTHUR