JeiJay, Petra Stipetic, Maren Wiese.png

JEIJAY

DIRECTED BY PETRA STIPETIC AND MAREN WIESE
GERMANY // 2021
8 MINS

Jeijay begins where most romantic movies end. The film is about two people who try to repress the slow but inevitable decay of their relationship.

Feeling isolated in their own little home, more and more of the happy facade of their love life comes.

Reflective Encounters

“A variety of materials and techniques present in this film are used to tell a story of love undone, as isolation has a polarising effect on the relationship of a young couple. After a year of enforced isolation, the world has become acutely aware of how close quarters can potentially breed disharmony; once enjoyable activities and shared stories begin to fade into monotony and resentment. Stipetić and Wiese have created a modern aesthetic world in which the emotions of loneliness and togetherness are palpable. The old chestnut that has somewhat become the mantra of our current cultural identity, that although we are more connected than ever before, we are also more alone.

Connectivity and the tangible distance it breeds, even when we are within arm’s reach of each other, come together in a disarmingly cute-looking film that speaks of more painful truths. The hand-built elements rub up against the digital components, adding further to the slowly-building sense of two lives, ever separating. As one character struggles to maintain their deteriorating home, the apathy of the other increasingly threatens to envelop not only their home but the life they have built together.”

— Laura-Beth Cowley

 

Filmmaker Q&A

A Q&A with filmmakers from the If Walls Could Speak at Encounters Film Festival 2021.

Filmmakers - Daniel Benjamin Gray (Hide), Anna Theil (Schtum), Mikolaj Janiw (Coffin), Maren Wiese & Petra Stipetic (jeijay), Ronan Mackenzie (It's Raining, It's Pouring), Michael Cusack (The Better Angels), Gabriel Böhmer (Gyroscope) and Marcos Sanchez (Grey to Green).

Hosted by Ben Mitchell, Encounters Animation Selector.

Filmmaker Bio

 

Petra Stipetić (*01.03.1992 in Zagreb, Croatia) and Maren Wiese (*14.03.1990 in Lingen, Germany) are two animators and directors working in Kassel, Germany.

They have been studying animation at the Kunsthochschule Kassel since 2014.

In 2016 they founded their animation collective fishyfilms and have been working together on film projects ever since.