Space #2

The project was expanded in the next weeks upon the release of Space #1 onto YouTube, and the festival commissioned 7 renowned international directors. Similarly, these renowned international directors create their short film inspired by the book Species of Spaces by Georges Perec and the days of the quarantine, painting a portrait of COVID-19 pandemic which tears down all borders. As COVID-19 shut down public life and confined individuals to their homes, each filmmaker crafted a personal cinematic essay—Space #2 is more of a fragment of the director’s own lockdown experience, filtered through distinct cultural identity, philosophy, and filmmaking voice. The films in this anthology are directed by Tarik Aktas (Germany), Mateo Bendesky (Argentina), Denis Côté (Canada), Rachel Leah Jones (US), Radu Jude (Romania), John C. Lynch (US), and Jia Zhang-Ke (China). These films confront different issues and phenomena during lockdown, including emotional fatigue, absurdism, media saturation, and solitude.

Domestic space and parent-child dynamic are again prominent themes occurred in the anthology: Aktas’ Spotting Fig Trees, shot in the style of a homemade VHS tape, captures Aktas’ child and their house in flickering frames, the handheld camera embodies a father’s gaze—intimate and rooted in love—parents and children stay together due to social restriction, evoking a sense of warmth during the lockdown. In Jude’s A Fable, his son restages Ibn Sina’s Lamb Experiment (two lambs, one thriving, one deprived—except the latter must constantly see a wolf and eventually die). The wolf, played by Jude’s son, becomes a metaphor for the ever-present pandemic anxiety. Meanwhile, in Jones’ (untitled), the camera focuses on the interior of a household, such as the peeling walls and the worn-out floors. Jones offers a little feminist subtext which blends domestic labor and professional filmmaking voice, but also ends the film through a short conversation with her son—“Mommy”, Yeah?”, “I need a hug” (13:32–13:35)—exposing a kind of pandemic vulnerability and anxiety through a child’s perspective.

Some films also address lockdown nihilism. In These Days, Bendesky includes shots of a minimalist domestic interior, with poignant narration that describes one’s precarious state of being during prolonged isolation: “I have these bags under my eyes, and I’m so depressed on top of that. For this life, and everything that’s happening…and it’s so hard to distract yourself…I’m going to kill someone today” (4:25–4:36). In Côté’s Ccnfnmnt e/scp(i)sm, he makes a kaleidoscope of lockdown life: Porn, conspiracy videos, COVID statistics, empty cityscapes, and empty room. Among the black-white visuals and relentless digital saturation, one experiences a meaningless kind of escapism to the extent of mental exhaustion. Lynch’s Be Absolute for Death, moreover, blends Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure into the narration and offers a rumination on mortality and futility—an existential reflection on the coronavirus threat. The only short film that contains narrative elements in this anthology belongs to the famous Chinese auteur Jia. His Visit dramatically acts out a meeting between him and another partner, which reveals the strict care protocols imposed by the new coronavirus. All the directors transform their homes, spaces, thoughts, and daily rituals into occasions of reflection, demonstrating a geographically diverse response to the COVID-19 pandemic.