The film Xenon is based on an ambitious performance project by Mikhail Karikis entitled Xenon: an exploded opera. It is a political allegory created in response to recent global economic upheavals and the state of human rights, and explores the politics of work, notions of censorship and freedom of speech. Featuring Karikis and the original performers of the stage production of the work – Maurice Causey, Monica Ross, Elaine Michener, Juice Vocal Ensemble, Amy Cunningham, Conall Gleeson, Jade Pybus, Jane Chapman – Karikis invited the filmmaker David Bickerstaff to collaborate on the direction of the moving image version of the project.
