North America Premiere
Ctrl+Z
55 minutes
Four young hikikomori and the author meet virtually, to discover that we can say no to the rhythms that our society imposes on us.
Due to geographic restrictions, this content is available only in United States.
D, DA, A and M are between 16 and 28 years old. They are hikikomori, they never leave the house, two of them not even their rooms. I have never met them in person, nor will I ever.
We begin to exchange life experiences, words, videos, photos, in a period in which I am constantly wondering and feeling those expectations that everyone, at a certain point in life, feels, because, like M rightly says, “by your 30s, something HAS to happen”.
They propose to me to try to live like them, to better understand why they have decided to isolate themselves. We got closer and closer, and I end up becoming almost obsessed with their presence/absence and their life choices. Theirs is a refusal, it is a resounding NO they scream silently from their rooms, where they lock themselves up because they cannot bear the performance anxiety that social standards make us feel, thus demonstrating a sort of “resistance”.
We begin to exchange life experiences, words, videos, photos, in a period in which I am constantly wondering and feeling those expectations that everyone, at a certain point in life, feels, because, like M rightly says, “by your 30s, something HAS to happen”.
They propose to me to try to live like them, to better understand why they have decided to isolate themselves. We got closer and closer, and I end up becoming almost obsessed with their presence/absence and their life choices. Theirs is a refusal, it is a resounding NO they scream silently from their rooms, where they lock themselves up because they cannot bear the performance anxiety that social standards make us feel, thus demonstrating a sort of “resistance”.
