Reflective Encounters

“In the dead calm of a Swiss city, a body collapses. There is nothing to disturb the local harmony of this somewhat austere urban territory, whose stoicism is palpable even in the pale colour palette, in the discreet and artificial lights, in the sounds in which we perceive emptiness. There is no need to panic for these banal characters living their daily routine while surrounding this lifeless body that repeatedly gives meaning to the film's title by meeting with unknown beings.

In each sequence, the director tries to surprise her audience, and as viewers we remain on the alert, to experience once again an exceptional situation that we now know to be common, but still unpredictable. Soon, contact is made; the inert body becomes a medium, a way to interact with others. In an individualistic and reclusive society that has learned to be self-centered, the urge for physical, psychic or oral contact becomes vital. Provoking it, even if it means imposing it, seems necessary.

With Strangers, Nora Longatti develops a sober and singular aesthetic that does not stay within a basic observational approach but stimulates the spectator, and manages – particularly thanks to her main character – to inject poetry into an emotionally sterile environment, lacking in desire and interaction.”

— Florian Fernandez