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by Thomas M. Sipos,
managing editor [April 29, 2022]
[HollywoodInvestigator.com]Less than two months after the lockdown began in March
2020, filmmakers were already marketing finished films with Covid
storylines and themes. (I screen entries for a film festival and see
this stuff fresh from the editing room.)
Most were shorts, but by summer 2020, features were ready for viewing.
Some were shot in apartments "under lockdown." Others were Zoom
"films," just a computer screen with multiple faces, the actors
performing their roles from home. Still others were one-man projects
shot on iPhones.
By now the "Covid film genre" likely includes hundreds of productions
from around the world. Most were, I suspect, an attempt to exploit a
hot "ripped from today's headlines!" topic. But among them
are some interesting works.
Co-directors Sarah Jayne and Ivan Malekin's
Machination was shot "during the pandemic" (according to its
promotional material). In this short feature film (62 minutes), a
young office worker, Maria (Steffi Thake), exemplifies
Covid hysteria.
Maria is not merely cautious; she's turned hypochondriac. Upon coming
home from work, she strips to her undies, disinfects her feet, her
hands and arms, her shoes, her purse, and throws all her clothes into
the washer.
When Maria showers, we see the red bruises where she's scrubbed
herself raw. She has groceries delivered, refuses to open the door
until the delivery man leaves, then disinfects her packaged food. When
her landlord enters, she panics, social distances by escaping into her
bathroom, and shouts that the rent money is in her bedroom side table
drawer. Just take it and please leave!
Perhaps because Covid is no longer a hot topic,
Machination is marketed as a
psychological horror film. That's not entirely dishonest. Jayne and Malekin
employ horror aesthetics in their story. Eerie music and sinister
whispers convey Maria's fears upon seeing ordinary objects. As the
film progresses, so does her mental breakdown. She hallucinates and
sees worms upon her phone, her food, and throughout her apartment.
Despite its weighty topic, Machination
also employs exploitation film techniques. Thake spends an awful lot
of screen time walking about in her undies. And the shower scenes
needn't be so long.
Despite these skin shots, a feminist theme ironically emerges. Why
is Maria a hypochondriac? It turns out she was sexually abused as a
child. This made her feel dirty. But she had suppressed her
feelings of unwholesomeness, and perhaps the memories as well. Then
Covid burst upon the world and threatened to contaminate Maria.
And no amount of social distancing or disinfection suffices to protect
her, to help her feel safe and clean, because she already feels
polluted.
And so Machination opens as an
"unprogressive" critique of Covid hysteria, but ends safely deep in
progressive territory as Maria is revealed to be a victim of the
patriarchy.
But then I wondered. Maria is crazy
because she's suffered sexual abuse, but she's still
crazy. The directors have even stated that their film is about, among
other things, mental illness. And so the message remains that you
must
be crazy to overreact to Covid like Maria is doing, whatever
the cause of her hypochondria.
Perhaps to dilute that dangerously "MAGA conservative" message,
Maria's brother, Yorgen (Rambert Attard), spouts conspiracy theories
about 5G and metal-contaminated vaccines. He's the film's villain, the
man who sexually abused Maria when they were young. Thematically, this
translates into: Maria's exaggerated fears of Covid are crazy, but
Yorgen's conspiracy theories are evil.
Machination was shot on Malta. Its
cast all speak English with an accent, so I assume all the actors are
Maltese. Steffi Thake is both talented and looks great in underwear.
This is a low-budget, indie affair; the distributor claims it cost
6,000 Euros. It was shot mostly in an apartment, mostly with just
Maria. Nevertheless, it's an interesting, at times powerful film. An
oddball mix of Covid skepticism,
feminist critique, and exploitation horror.
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