From Omeleto.
A couple sees a paranormal event.
BISECTED is used with permission from Danny Pineros. Learn more at https://dannypineros.com.
Mia and Ben are a couple that have embarked on a cross-country drive together. There’s a sense of disconnection between them in the close confines of their care.
But when they witness a series of meteor-like lights descending from the sky, Ben pulls to the side of the road to investigate. When he returns to the car, he discovers Mia has vanished. Though she can call him, they can’t see each other. They soon realize they exist in separate dimensions, unable to perceive one another — but they still have to work together somehow to get themselves out of this strange situation.
Directed and written by Danny Pineros, this compelling sci-fi short begins much like a moody romantic road movie, as a couple hit the open road, perhaps looking to connect after a period of dissatisfaction. Both Ben and Mia have a weariness around one another. But when they find themselves immersed in separate but parallel dimensions, any simmering emotional baggage suddenly becomes urgently salient, bringing the film’s exploration of separation, perception and emotional disconnect to the fore through propulsive storytelling and atmospheric visuals.
Shot with a vivid and dynamic eye for the desolate yet stunning landscapes of the open road, the storytelling quickly paints the couple’s dynamic in economical strokes before getting to the film’s central premise. The notion of parallel dimensions is a time-honored fascination in the sci-fi genre, but it’s handled here less through heavy special effects and more through practical ones, establishing how the dimensions can affect and even hear one another, but cannot see or exist together.
That idea is developed further as Ben and Mia navigate this strange reality, with the storytelling superbly building suspense and tension. As the adrenaline ratchets up, actors Natalie Polisson and Robin Zamora as Mia and Ben, respectively, lose their weariness around one another in the fear and panic that builds. But as they try to work together and are tenuously connected by their phones, they exist in different realities. They’re not seeing or hearing the same things, just one another. And when even that begins to break up, they find themselves on a collision course to disaster.
Gripping and intriguing to watch, BISECTED is distinguished not just by its high level of production value and craftsmanship, but its muscular, economical storytelling, building out a fascinating idea in the vein of filmmakers like Denis Villeneuve or Christopher Nolan, both of whom lay out intellectually challenging premises and observe how these wrinkles in perception and reality reshape our selves and our relationship. The central notion of BISECTED would do well to seed a longer narrative, both to explore and develop its premise and explore the couple’s dilemma, as they remain tethered yet disconnected. As it stands, it’s a fascinating sci-fi premise, but also a deft metaphor for how people can be both part of a relationship and yet disengaged from it — something that many people experience without a time-space anomaly.
