Unfolding the Aryan Papers (2009) was produced in response to an Animate commission to make an animation/film to be shown online. The twin-sister duo Jane and Louise Wilson were given access to the Stanley Kubrick archive at the London College of Communications. This involved a 10-day visit to the Kubrick Archive during which time the artists became most interested in the photographic and written/script research for a film that Kubrick never made. The film was to have been called The Aryan Papers.
Unfolding the Aryan Papers (2009) is as much about a film that never happened as it is a portrait of the chosen lead actress Johanna ter Steege. It begins with images of Johanna taken in 1993 by Stanley Kubrick - they are of the wardrobe shoot for the film The Aryan Papers. Johanna was to play the lead role of Tania, a compelling character. Tania is central to the film: she is a Polish Jew trying to save herself and her family from the Nazis. When Jane ands Louise Wilson visited the Kubrick Archive, they were intrigued to look at the detailed research for a film that never made it into production. The amount of research is overwhelming and it seems to have overwhelmed Kubrick himself. The research left him very depressed and he abandoned the project.
The duo's work takes its title from Kubrick's film and, intercut between stills of Johanna, are images from the archive of specific scenes Kubrick wanted to recreate and images from the Ealing Studios Archive of interiors, shot in 1939/40. The film moves into live action with footage of Johanna filmed now, fifteen years later, where she appears to come to life, recreating stills from the original wardrobe shoot.
