In the beginning, Failed Emptiness was supposed to be a cycle of short films – cinematic epigrams, melancholic anecdotes about the inherent strangeness of life simply passing by, made eerie through the exclusive use of black-and-white thermal cinematography. But at some point, after two of these having gotten realized, filmmaker-artist Mika Taanila and poet supreme Harry Salmenniemi felt that the project should get reconsidered, with sound artist Nika Son invited as a third voice. And thus, they embarked on one final work, feature-length this time, that would offer more breathing space.
The artistic concept (similar to that of their earlier collaboration Tectonic Plate, 2016) remained the same as for the shorts: All is told in images and sounds plus written poetry on monochrome ground – no spoken words, no dialogue etc. – Antonioni squared, modernity pushed to its limits, even partly dangling over the abyss of an unknown morrow of mores and aesthetics not yet quite imaginable. The way Taanila looks at the world, the woman, and her doings paints them as important and enigmatic as the old turtle doing its thing or the cleaning robot going through its motions; the soundscape suggests parallel worlds near as well as far. One would assume that the story is that of the woman we see going through the rituals and routines of her life, but it could be somebody else as well. Yours, for example.
Olaf Möller