"The Reality"

23 June 2020

75s

Quarantine Blues

There's been a lot of forced cheerfulness about lockdown on social media since its inception: people urging others to see the time spent indoors as an opportunity to be productive, to take up a new hobby, or to finally get stuck in on that long put-off project.

Throughout this stiff-upper-lip approach, there's been an undercurrent of desperation - as though acknowledging the ugly truth of lockdown will make it real. Unfortunately, mental illness doesn't respect requests for 'positive vibes only', and loneliness has been daily life for many long before Covid-19 appeared.

This hard-hitting short film brushes away the performative gloss and exposes what surviving a pandemic has meant for many in raw fashion: introspection, boredom, and depression. The changes undergone during isolation won't simply be swept away when restrictions lift, and the reminder to check in with struggling loved ones as the world begins to open back up is timely.

UK

Short Film