Pieces | All of us strangers

All of us strangers

‘All of us strangers’ is a wonderfully well executed manifesto for love besides the tragedy of the human condition – the inexorable finitude of any heartfelt connection. In order to engage the public in such emotional journey, Andrew Haigh created a realist yet internal movie of a lonely man – Adam. Initially, the film seems to be centered around an encounter with the neighbor, evolving into a love story. This idea is gradually deconstructed to make way for an intimate mourning process.

Some might discuss the use of the word ‘realist’ for defining this movie. This questionable description underlines the experience felt by the spectator – the universe of the story is inherently realist but the perception of the world through the eyes of the protagonist is characterized by a dense layer of emotion and trauma that engages the public in his ‘demencia’ unveiled by the ‘doppelgänger’ (the double) through the shadows, the use of intense light beam, the windows reflection materializes the gateway to the interiority of protagonist.

The progressive discovery of Adam’s deep existential vertigo through his inner psyche collapses the realist appearance of the movie. The demencia - the one that makes the spectator thinks that his parents are still alive (despite the surprisingly wrong casting choice), the one that leads to his anger crisis, the one that makes us believe that he is having a love relationship with his neighbor – is symptomatic of the intense sense of betrayal felt by Adam. The feeling of abandonment due to his parents’ loss is coupled with a need of controlling the incontrollable: to raise the death by leaving with them simple yet precious moments of life such as decorating the Christmas three or being able to jump in his parents’ place at any time.

The discordance between life and death, peace and deep suffering, reality and dream is symbolized by the discontinuity of the soundtrack, where the intensity of the music is suddenly condensed, often accompanied by abrupt movement, representing a transition from one state to another. The underground scene brilliantly represents the distortion between these two worlds while underlining the complexity of the protagonist's emotional state. Sitting on the bench of an old London Underground train, his reflection appears in the window. As the tube moves, his reflection is distorted by the curvature of the window. The grating, discordant sounds of the moving tube complement the image of his screaming face. He is sitting quietly, but his reflection reveals his inner torment.

‘All of us strangers’ explores existential questions through the prism of ghosts - ghosts being manifestations of the mourning process - which represent a means of coping with the passage of time and the absurdity of the human condition. This film plunged me into a deep trauma, making me an 'object of possession' as I was inhabited by its emotional universe hours and days after watching it. I believe that the cinematographic methods employed - an exceptional acting performance, a disconcerting yet moving plot, a soundtrack at the service of poetic visuals - were ways of conveying the film's intensity.