Deux Personnes échangeant de la Salive (Two People Exchanging Saliva)
2024 · 36m · France
Directed by Natalie Musteata, Alexandre Singh
Genres: drama, fantasy, romance
Tones: absurdist, dark, darkly comic, mythic, sensual
In a dystopian world where kissing is punishable by death and transactions are conducted through slaps to the face, a young saleswoman at an upscale department store attracts the dangerous attention of a wealthy housewife, sparking forbidden desire under the jealous eye of her manager.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Dystopia where kissing is capital and currency is slaps — that's a Lobster-grade premise, and Vicky Krieps and Zar Amir Ebrahimi in a 36-minute Staff Pick deserves the benefit of the doubt even though the Vimeo link is dead. If it lands the absurdism without smugness, I'm there.
Vicky Krieps and Zar Amir Ebrahimi in a Lanthimos-adjacent dystopia where transactions occur via slaps is, frankly, the kind of casting and conceit that demands attention — Singh and Musteata are taking aesthetic risks at the scale of Yorgos Lanthimos's The Lobster. The 404 link gives me pause but the cast and premise more than compensate.
Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Vicky Krieps in a dystopia where slaps replace currency is an extraordinary cast for a 36-minute Vimeo Staff Pick, and the conceit has Lobster-level world-building ambition. Page didn't load (Vimeo 404), so I'm trusting the metadata more than I'd like.
Reviews
Shapes chillingly clever details and patient direction into a potent reminder that few things are more dangerous to authoritarianism than tenderness.
A ravishing romance drama that explores pain, pleasure, and intimacy — it's rare to see this level of world building in a short.
Festivals
- Telluride Film Festival 2024
- AFI Fest 2024, Grand Jury Prize
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2025, Audience Award
- Out on Film LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2024, Best Drama Short
- Academy Awards 2026, Best Live Action Short Film (tied with The Singers)