Celeste makes directorial debut with dark new ‘This Is Who I Am’ short film

Celeste has made her directorial debut for a short film accompanying her new single ‘This Is Who I Am’.

• READ MORE: Celeste on her “natural” next album: “I just want to feel like it’s truly myself”

The song has been used as the title theme for the recent political thriller The Day Of The Jackal starring Eddie Redmayne.

Now, Celeste has unveiled the accompanying video, which was filmed in Winchester with a cast of collaboratives she chose herself, including the artist Edward Rollitt, choreographer Holly Blakey and designer Sonia Trefilova.

Per a press release, the film intended on depicting “the oppression women have faced throughout history, and their collective strength and resilience to overcome”, while also introducing two characters who will play a major part in her 2025 album.

“The initial thinking behind the idea is that there is a sense that we, as a people, are enduring a kind of suffering, perhaps due to a lack of connectivity among people in society,” Celeste said. “It has been my thinking for a long time now that we feel quite often that women are, or should be, the bearers of our comfort. But in the way our roles and lives have evolved, we are no longer the universal caregivers that keep a society functioning, feeling loved, nurtured, and in the safety of the metaphorical womb. I believe this has led to a level of frustration, of violence towards women. My hope is that the depiction of myself, although bound, shows a strength that defies the circumstance.”

Check out the video for ‘This Is Who I Am’ below:

When the song was first released last month, Celeste explained that it had “existed for a long time, and it felt almost unjust that circumstances didn’t allow it to come out four years ago”.

“Now, with everything aligning, this moment serves as a powerful acknowledgement of something that, back then, felt unresolved.”

Produced by Beach Noise (Kendrick Lamar), ‘This Is Who I Am’ follows on from the BRIT-winning and Mercury-nominated artist’s 2022 single ‘To Love A Man’.

Celeste’s debut studio album, ‘Not Your Muse’, was released in 2021. In a four-star review, NME wrote: “Whether up-tempo or morose, Celeste’s remarkable voice is the real show-stealer on ‘Not Your Muse’. It has supernatural qualities, turning already poetic lyrics into gut-punch moments.”

The LP was also featured in NME‘s 20 best debut albums of the year list.

Speaking to NME at the Mercury Prize 2021 (where ‘Not Your Muse’ was shortlisted), Celeste explained that she’d been progressing well with writing her second full-length record.

“I don’t want to feel compromised at all, artistically or creatively in the sound or in the lyrics,” she said of her new material at the time. “I just want to feel like it’s truly myself – that’s where I’m starting out with it.”

She continued: “So far, a lot of the songs have been written on acoustic guitar, which I quite like. With some, you don’t need to do any more to it than that. It’s probably going to be more natural and toned down.”