Reflective Encounters

Anastasia Bruce-Jones’ short Microwave is eerily reminiscent of COVID-19 lockdowns: an overwhelming feeling of isolation pitted against the fear of an unknown danger seemingly ever-present in the outside world.

However, a pandemic is not required to create such an emotionally charged environment. As of 2023, 66 jurisdictions around the world find private consensual sex between men illegal, with 41 countries criminalising intercourse between women. Plus, there has been a 271% rise in transphobic hate crime across the UK over the last ten years. With these human rights violations still being perpetrated against the LGBTQ+ community, external threat amongst society remains a lingering constant.

In Microwave, this threat is represented by ‘the outsiders’, and is why Andy has remained hidden ever since their mum passed. Despite surviving through life grief-stricken and unassuming, danger comes to door in the shape of a disembodied hand carefully wrapped in a box.

Yet somehow Andy can find a new lease on life through the appendage. Memories of their mum and rituals of rigorous cleaning seem to give Andy the comfort and warmth missing from their apartment’s cold interiors. Even against insurmountable odds, Microwave shows there’s room to find a strong connection.

— Nathan Hardie