Reflective Encounters

“The concept of growing together with your partner is approached in this mysterious tale of love and transformation. Imagine a love where the bond is so strong that you share everything, where nurturing them is nurturing yourself, where their sustenance sustains you. Bubble has a unique way of symbolising this, leaving the audience room for plenty of interpretation. There is very little dialogue in Bubble (only two lines in fact); the connection between the protagonists is apparent as we witness them doing everything together, including going to the bathroom, almost as if they are one person.

But the film is anything but quiet, with prominent, almost obtrusive sound design, reminiscent of ASMR videos. Whether one enjoys these sounds or not, there is an intimacy in being close enough to someone to hear their breath or any such small movement, and here it’s used to highlight the couple’s closeness. Heightened sound is often associated with the horror genre, and a lot of what we hear in Bubble could be considered as quite bodily – like breathing and crunching for example. Along with low-light cinematography and a muddy narrative, the mood becomes unsettling for the audience. It soon transpires that this relationship could be blossoming into something else…”

— Alice Shone