This excellent new film from India is showing for the first time in Europe at the Berlin Film Festival. After great reviews at Toronto, I expected a very stupid film like Super Size Me... no, this turned out quite surreal - what a scary, weird and odd world this film shows us. And it is all real - our strange 21st world!
The film was voted one of the best undistributed films of the year in the US by both The Village Voice and Indiewire, who have their pulse on new independent cinema.
"In vast, fluorescent rooms, thousands of ambitious young Indians talk to people in Kentucky, California or Idaho. Bridging continents by telephone, they pitch products and soothe frayed consumer nerves. As they troubleshoot, they dream of America. As they dream, they change. What is it like to transport yourself to a remote land you've never even seen? How does it feel to live so far outside your own body? Welcome to the world of offshore call centers. John & Jane is an astonishing look at the souls of the outsourced. Shot on 35mm and composed with unsettling grace, this documentary finds an entirely original and fitting language to express the eerie dislocation of virtual work. The lives it depicts are real, but the film's approach gives those lives the scope of speculative fiction."
The music is really beautiful, too - very ambient and chilling - with electronic musicians from all over contributing to the score, including Germany's Thomas Brinkmann and Japan's Minamo.
For anyone who likes films that don't leave you easily - this is a must see!
The film was voted one of the best undistributed films of the year in the US by both The Village Voice and Indiewire, who have their pulse on new independent cinema.
"In vast, fluorescent rooms, thousands of ambitious young Indians talk to people in Kentucky, California or Idaho. Bridging continents by telephone, they pitch products and soothe frayed consumer nerves. As they troubleshoot, they dream of America. As they dream, they change. What is it like to transport yourself to a remote land you've never even seen? How does it feel to live so far outside your own body? Welcome to the world of offshore call centers. John & Jane is an astonishing look at the souls of the outsourced. Shot on 35mm and composed with unsettling grace, this documentary finds an entirely original and fitting language to express the eerie dislocation of virtual work. The lives it depicts are real, but the film's approach gives those lives the scope of speculative fiction."
The music is really beautiful, too - very ambient and chilling - with electronic musicians from all over contributing to the score, including Germany's Thomas Brinkmann and Japan's Minamo.
For anyone who likes films that don't leave you easily - this is a must see!