Open Eyes

China2023fiction18'International Short Competition

Residents of no other country have been so much experienced by the pandemic restrictions. In China, a quarantine meant not only a ban to leave your house but also a welded door or forced deportation to a place of isolation. ‘Open Eyes’ is a film that settles accounts with this difficult period in an unexpected way by presenting a relatively young marriage trapped in isolation. The need to spend 24 hours together with their child turns into an increasing challenge. Screams can be heard from behind the walls. The noise of everyday traffic is replaced by unpleasant sounds. The spouses are together, but at the same time they cannot be together. They need to restrain their desire. They are suffocating more and more with tension on the rise and the increasing suspense in the film. The authors have managed to capture the form and nature of the pandemic lockdown paranoia.