Chain

The film follows two women. One works for a Japanese company; she has been sent to study theme parks, stays in hotels, writes reports and sends recordings to her managers. The other has no work; she lives around a shopping mall, sleeps in empty buildings and speaks to nobody. The two never meet. The narrative moves between them and the setting always looks the same: car parks, escalators, chain stores and signage. Jem Cohen directs. The film dates from 2004. Its most striking feature is how it was shot; the footage was taken in seven countries at different times and joined in the edit as if it were one place. The idea it builds is that places have become identical; no scene says where it is and the viewer cannot tell. The film stands between fiction and documentary; the sections with the two characters are fiction and the images of place are real. The narrative builds no plot and never joins the two strands. Cohen is better known for documentary and music films and this is among his features. Its sound is largely ambient recording; music is used sparingly. Who it is for: viewers who like experimental cinema and narratives built on place. Who it is not for: nothing happens, the pace is very slow, and the film expects the viewer to do the interpreting.