“The smartphone in this film stands for constant dread, terror and isolation”

Possessed is the latest feature from Metahaven, the award-winning studio of Amsterdam-based filmmakers and designers Vinca Kruk and Daniël van der Velden. The film, co-directed by fellow filmmaker (and designer) Rob Schröder, is described by the Metahaven team as “a complaint” against the tyranny of modern mobile communications. “The smartphone in this film stands for constant dread. It doesn’t stand for opportunity and connection but for terror and isolation,” Van der Velden elaborates.

The film offers a meditation on communication and connectedness in the digital era. It is a “mash-up” of found footage culled from YouTube, archive material of bombed out cities at the end of the Second world War, newsreel footage from the Balkan wars of the 1990s, surrealistic imagery shot by the filmmakers themselves and fictional scenes involving a young woman, played by Olivia Lonsdale. There are voice-overs from London-based leftist academics Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams, co-authors of ‘Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work’.

“On the one hand, there are influences that are political. On the other hand, there are influences that are much more lyrical,” Van der Velden says of the film. “I would not call it a straight-up essay film but it definitely uses elements of that.”

Van der Velden and Kruk originally formed Metahaven as a graphic design studio dedicated to design and spectulative projects with a political and philosophical edge. Their first major work was inspired by Sealand, an abandoned rig/fortress in the North Sea that was reclaimed as a tiny independent state. It has been put to use as a “data haven,” outside the control of any state, and as the site for a casino.

Over the years, the Metahaven founders have become increasingly drawn to film. “If you work on your own projects in design and research then you start to tell stories. At least, we did,” Van der Velden stresses. The Metahaven principals saw film as the perfect medium for bringing together their visual obsessions with their desire to create narratives.

One early film was The Sprawl (Propaganda About Propaganda), exploring the use of the internet and social media for propaganda purposes. They also recently made an experimental short called Information Skies, a hybrid film involving live action, graphics and animation that was nominated for a European Film Award.

Possessed, their first feature-length work, was conceived in 2014 when producer René Huybrechtse of Dutch Mountain Film called Kruk and Van der Velden out of the blue with the question, “do you guys want to make a film?” At first, they were wary but they quickly discovered that Huybrechtse was sincere in his offer – and that he had the contacts and expertise to get the project going. As graphic designers, Kruk and Van der Velden tended to do everything themselves. Working with Dutch Mountain Film taught them to accept the division of labour within feature filmmaking. They brought on board Rob Schröder, a close friend who already had considerable filmmaking experience, as their co-director. “The really interesting point about the collaboration is that is confrontational and that it has moments of friction in it,” Van der Velden says of the working relationship between the filmmakers.

The film features plenty of designs from Metahaven, among them the beautifully patterned scarves used to veil the faces of the women in front of camera. These women evoke memories of classical sculptures and of old De Chirico paintings but the women are also intended to be militant and aggressive – an “internet tribe.”

Possessed, which will be released in The Netherlands by Cinema Delicatessen, may take a dark view of smart phone culture but Van der Velden believes it could as easily be watched on a digital device as on the big screen. “We are not from a traditional film background and we are not bound to the cinema as the only place to experience… cinema.”