Waiting
- Date: 1998
- Medium: 16mm b/w reversal film, digitally edited
- Format: UHD digital video file, b/w, sound
- Duration: 2 min. 21 sec.
[catalog entry]
Waiting is a haunting short film that explores themes of inevitability, emotional paralysis, and the quiet terror of impending fate. Shot with a fixed camera and minimal movement, the piece centers on the passage of time and the emotional architecture of anticipation. A young girl sits alone in a dim hallway, her body still but her expression tense—caught in a moment suspended between dread and acceptance.
The film unfolds through sparse, deliberate cuts: the heavy sound of approaching footsteps, brief flashes of blood splattered on the wall, and the girl's increasingly distressed gaze. These visual fragments suggest a violent outcome that exists just beyond the frame, building tension without resorting to explicit action.
As the unknown man finally enters the frame, the girl's fear yields to resignation. In a quiet, symbolic gesture, she extinguishes the candle beside her and closes her eyes—signaling not just surrender, but a final relinquishment of control.
Waiting is a psychologically charged meditation on vulnerability and fatalism. Its restrained style heightens the emotional stakes, offering a poignant reflection on what it means to face the inescapable with nothing left but the choice of when to close one's eyes.
Film stills from the video piece Waiting.
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