In an abandoned hospital on the outskirts of Brussels, strangers come and go while ghosts linger. Among the shards of glass, a young streamer performs a live sex show for an online subscriber. Under the same dilapidated roof, an old woman lights a fire and drinks her sorrows away in the room where her husband stayed until he died. A chance encounter between these two lonely beings will unleash a flood of memories and virtual data. But real-life connections are scarce, and mutual consolation seems a distant dream. Porcupines are said to gather on cold winter days to share body heat with their fellows, but ultimately injure each other with their quills. How is it that our slightest attempts at intimacy so often see us retreating once more into solitude?
Trương Minh Quý was born in Buôn Ma Thuột, a small city in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. His hometown’s landscape and childhood memories are constant features in his films, in which he juxtaposes the abstract with personal images, and improvises while shooting. His films have been selected for international film festivals and exhibitions such as Locarno, New York, Clermont-Ferrand, Oberhausen, Rotterdam, Viennale, Busan and VideoBrasil. He is an alumnus of the 2012 Asian Film Academy and 2016 Berlinale Talents.