‘Orca’ – the first ever ‘Lockdown Film’
This might be the most ‘in real time’ film I have written about so far. Orca had its release on the 13th of November. And it is real time because it films life during the pandemic. Would be a great film to discuss by screen!
My previous article on the website was about the Thai film Manta Ray which uses the fish as a metaphor for the refugee ”a creature that swims around all waters and does not belong anywhere”. In a similar way the 2020 Swedish film Orca by Josephine Bornebusch uses the marine mammal as a metaphor, the orca being one of the most social animals on this earth.
Orca might be the first film that completely plays during the corona pandemic. Covid-19 is never explicitly mentioned in the film (apart from radio news clips in the background) but it clearly is about people who are quarantined. All their communications are virtual. The characters solely communicate through the screen and by telephone.
Orca is about eleven people in Stockholm during two day and nights. Their stories are intertwined and we are drawn into their problems and needs like loneliness, infidelity, loss of contact, self-absorbedness, the wish to be loved and the inability to love. It is about the yearning for intimacy and how social distancing both aggravates tensions but also lays bare hidden realities and by doing so may open new directions.
It is very well played by some of Sweden’s best actors. They played their scenes on their own, alone without co-actors. Bornebusch was up till now active as a writer/producer/director of TV series, but when the pandemic closed the work on those productions, she turned her attention to writing and directing Orca, her first feature film.
Although it may sound a bit boring to have to look at people who are isolated and only talk through screen or telephone, I promise that you will be drawn into the characters and their stories, recognizing the sadness, the laying bare of weaknesses and the desperation that belongs to this time period.
The film ends with 12 separate screens showing each of the eleven people on her or his own screen and the orca on the twelfth amidst them, expressing well both the reality and the yearning of this time.
Rinus, Nov 2020
*image posted for non commercial purposes under ‘fair use’ of copyright material in recommendation of the film
3 Comments
Submit a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Recent Posts
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop
The Korean writer Hwang Bo-Reum has previously written several essay collections. This is her first novel. The book’s protagonist Yeongju did everything she was supposed to do: Go to university, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. Burned out, she abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career and starts to follow her dream. She opens a bookshop.
The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin
The Music of Bees, debut novel by Eileen Garvin, is a thoughtful, life-affirming story that invites the reader to consider the healing power of community. It is present day rural Oregon; a region dotted with fruit farms as well as other agricultural endeavors.
Films with a Common Theme: Difficulty in Close Relationships
The past week I happened to see three 2025 films that had in common the theme of pains and deficits in close relationships…
This sounds great. Something that could be very cathartic to watch during these times.
It feels like this will be hard film for me to watch – too close to our ongoing reality, but the kind of film we perhaps most need to see for understanding what’s happening inside of us.
It is interesting that the expanse of the ocean in the form of its creatures are the metaphors of both films. I look forward to understanding why!