Quarantine is a long, sleepless, waiting game for Clarissa Zhang in Shanghai Quarantopia (2023). The days that followed after March 28, 2022 are vacant of cheerful smiles and small topics between neighbors. Before then, each morning would always feel alive, however, in the short days that followed, speculations and wary evenings became the only thing they’re familiar with. Through Zhang’s lens, the viewers will feel like they’re being suffocated from the restrictions of distancing.
In the confinement of concrete cages, they are merely numbers, living side by side without ever having the privilege of being close enough to know each other’s names. Instead, the closest they’ll ever get to each other is their own wails of frustrations over needs for medicine and food. Aside from Coronavirus, desolation also ripened into an epidemic of its own. Its existence felt foreign yet familiar, like the embrace of an old friend. Every shot from Zhang’s documentary is monochromatic except for a few specific parts, representing hope. And the story in Shanghang Quarantopia (2023) ends with uncertainty. When we finally laid eyes on Zhang’s documentary, has her time on quarantine finally come to an end?
Shanghai Quarantopia (2023) is dedicated to those who survived Shanghai in the Spring of 2022. A representation of them—and possibly us—who survived the impermanent dystopia. The film is selected in Docs Docs: Short! Festival Film Dokumenter 2023. (Athallah, Tuffahati) (Vanis/Adinta)
Film Details
Shanghai Quarantopia (海春)
Clarissa Zhang | 14 Min | 2023 | Malaysia | Color & BW | 17+
Screening Schedule
12.05 | Auditorium IFI-LIP | 14.30 WIB
12.08 | Gedung ex Bioskop Permata | 15.30 WIB
