Daydreaming
2019 · 10m · USA
Directed by Eren Gülfidan
Genres: drama, experimental
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
A young woman escapes her dreary office job through increasingly surreal daydreams — a falling brain, a juggling mime on a train, a phantom Minnesota motel. Reality keeps pulling her back to the cubicle.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Office-life ennui is the laziest possible subject, and yet Gülfidan smuggles in Basinski and a falling brain — the small rebellion saves it. I'll allow it.
Eren Gülfidan stitches Basinski drones to a falling brain and a juggling mime — Maya Deren rezoned for the open-plan office. Lovely if not especially urgent.
Surreal cubicle escape vignettes (falling brain, juggling mime) scored partly to William Basinski is a strong audio-visual commitment, but stream-of-consciousness tone poems need a tether or they drift.
Reviews
Gülfidan's film gives off a searching quality, striving to be free from endless toil and anxiety, in favor of open fields and oceans.