Zound (2020)

On the stage of a Concert Hall, a Female PIANO PLAYER is performing on a grand piano; only the acoustic, muted sounds of piano hammers are heard and not the normal keyboard sound. On a Call Centre ambient, over 200 seated call operators are framed, communicating with headsets and microphones put on, a messy amalgam of phrases, sentences, or chats are heard simultaneously, increasing this robotic, confusing and depressing way of communication, leading to a climax after which comes... a short break from that work shows the FEMALE OPERATOR kissing and hugging passionately with her BOYFRIEND; no word to say, not a single sound is heard until... an alarming, brutal buzzer makes her back to the harmful noisy work of the Call Center... We're on a taxi who's DRIVER tries talking with his GIRLFRIEND concerning an abortion, dealing on and on with her and the traffic noises, messy road workers, old used buses, scooter's loud exhaust, shouts, horns, and cornets honking, police officer whistling and finally with a stopped ambulance with the sharp sound of its siren which stops close to them leading the soundtrack of this scene to a high-pitched climax, on crazy stopped traffic. We're in the same taxi as before but this time as a deaf-mute GIRL's P.O.V. who sees the TAXIDRIVER and his GIRLFRIEND's relationship as lovable; she gets off the taxi and the same scenes are crossed and revised from her Point of View, as soundless video; kaleidoscopic visions, trees rustling, an airplane passing over our heads or a foggy road, a wild black dog barking "soundless"; we see her as a pedestrian at the kissing sequence from the Call Center, as a spectator on the auditorium of a strange Piano Concerto with Orchestra and Working Tools where she seems to find her twin soul, another deaf-mute BOY; they seat together for the second part of the concert when suddenly we hear... "CUT, very good one" and we see the film's shooting team. Follows a backstage documentary that testifies how this film is made, despite the noises, messy surroundings, and real-life cacophonies; the footage is untouched, and the sound is not elaborated or mixed, thus adding another veracity layer to the film's subject. For the last time, we're back at the stage of the Concert Hall where the Female PIANO PLAYER is performing Handel's "Minuet in G Minor".