Reflective Encounters

“By rooting itself in the reality and the daily life of a city bus, we might first think that Dear Passengers approaches a documentary dimension. However, this feeling doesn’t last long. Close-ups on the hands of the passengers follow one another. And quickly discomfort sets in. A latent tension is palpable as the sounds of the bus fade away. But the situation catches us and takes us where we do not necessarily expect. In the silence, glances follow touch, the frame slowly widens and the movements of the bodies turns into a choreography.

Beyond the work on the sound design (by Markus Andreas, with a soundtrack by Patrick McGinely), which draws Dear Passengers into a transcendental dimension closer to contemporary dance, director Madli Lääne manages to construct a real cinematographic performance through the image. Lääne’s direction gradually lets us forget the presence of the medium itself – and therefore the camera – in a closed and extremely confined environment. The fly-sized lens slips into every gap and helps to make possible the expression of a world in harmony with our desires, or more precisely the desires of the passengers.”

— Florian Fernandez