Elif Özbay

Sonzai Zone is a speculative fiction film on intimacy and loneliness after the normalization of ambient communication media. An unlikely encounter between Yún and Souvd takes place in a near-future where social interactions are largely based on the mediation of human presence, known as ‘Sonzai-kan’. Shifting between XR games, Immersion Arcades and spatial home displays, their insidiously orchestrated relationship escalates into extreme idealization. Meanwhile, Souvd’s ex-girlfriend Ntzumi launches into undercover investigation.

In livestock farming the blood of slaughtered cows becomes either a hidden component of products ranging from pharmaceuticals to soy substitutes, or it gets discarded, dried and burned for energy. Following this invisible trail of blood, the film investigates the architecture and tools that determine the value of a material once considered the substance of life.