Songbird

See also: Mika, Kasia. “COVID-19 Movie Songbird Is a Disaster—We Need Better Pandemic Stories.” The Conversation, 27 Jan. 2021, bit.ly/3rbwgX5. FILM REVIEW, SCHOLARSHIP | UK am/jb/ig

Hailed as the first feature film about the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Songbird is a dystopian thriller set in 2024, where cities are governed by quarantine zones called Q Zones. Scholar Kasia Mika criticizes the film for its formulaic plot, arguing that it reduces the pandemic to a mere backdrop for a generic romantic story. Mika stresses the importance of taking time and care when addressing crises in art, citing Svetlana Alexievich’s book on Chernobyl as a model for capturing the complexity of such events. While Songbird may have aimed for escapism, Mika argues that this approach is harmful, as it overlooks the inequalities embedded in the pre-pandemic world and undermines efforts to address them in a post-pandemic future.