Sigur Rós - (Untitled)

What this video is

Released in April 2003, this video arrived at a pivotal moment of post-rock's mainstream penetration, coinciding with Sigur Rós's US breakthrough via the album ( ) charting at No. 51 on the Billboard 200. The video's imagery of gas-masked schoolchildren playing in black ash under a red sky resonated powerfully in the post-9/11 cultural atmosphere and amid escalating discourse around environmental crisis and war.…

Why it matters

A landmark achievement in post-rock visual culture, this video established that non-lyrical, ambient-scaled music could anchor high-concept narrative filmmaking. Sigismondi's dystopian-child imagery became a touchstone of 2000s art-directed music video production, influencing subsequent directors…

The director

Italian-Canadian director, photographer, and visual artist born 1965 in Pescara, Italy; raised in Hamilton, Ontario. Trained in painting and photography at Ontario College of Art and Design. Began as fashion photographer before transitioning to music video…