Random Strangers

The short film Random Strangers ‘Another World’ from director Alexis dos Santos made for the Cinema Reloaded project.

Random Stangers “Another World” explores contemporary online relationships with a strongly cinematic language. The film portrays a new generation for whom Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Skype, and the whole idea of creating your own online persona have played a crucial role in the development of their social skills since their early teenage years.

The two protagonists, Rocky & Lulu, live on opposite sides of the planet, in different cultures. Rocky lives in Berlin and Lulu is from a small town in Mexico. Both have unhappy lives at home, but in the virtual world, and in the eyes of each other, they can be whoever they wish to be.
We witness the differences between these two lives, both in the virtual and the real worlds: Lulu and Rocky’s daily life on the one hand, the parallel world they create for each other on the other.

The world they create for each other is based on video diaries, photomontages with secret confessions, fictional representations of facts in their lives made with toys, musical scenes, karaoke playbacks for spoof pop-promos and more. All of these are cinematic devices that they use in a very playful way. The world they create for each other is a film world. This film world is fun and inspiring, sometimes quite intimate, but always playful. It is a place where they can be truly themselves, truly free.

In contrast the real world will be in stark opposition with a rigorous filmmaking style – longer shots and real time sequences (Gus van Sant’s Elephant). The contrast between the worlds will be represented in multiple textures, inventive editing, music, and otherworldly soundscapes.

As their relationship blossoms they will each wonder: How close can you be to a someone who lives across the planet? Can you really know someone, if you only communicate virtually?

The creator of Glue and Unmade Beds, Alexis dos Santos delves yet deeper into youth culture. Lulu and Rocky, from different corners of the world, meet in the virtual one.
Two people on opposite sides of the world enter into a relationship in a virtual world. Lulu and Rocky live in Buenos Aires and Berlin respectively. Their daily lives are very different to the exciting, fun virtual world they create for each other. Also screens before Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then and Tiger Eyes.

Directed by: Alexis Dos Santos Produced by: The Bureau / Lemming Film Category: Fiction Date: JANUARY 2011