Plastic Bag is a short film by Iranian-american filmmaker Ramin Bahrani,set in a not so distant future as a part of a series of shorts titled FUTURESTATES.It is a series of 11 fictional mini-features exploring possible future scenarios through the lens of today’s global realities.
Bahrani, is a highly rated young director and I have only seen his critically acclaimed debut film Man Push Cart (2005) set in New York before this.After that he has made 2 more even more praised films Chop Shop and Goodbye Solo.Leave all that aside for later viewing maybe,and watch Plastic Bag as soon as possible.
Plastic Bag is in one word -brilliant.
It starts with the plastic bag’s first breath at the supermarket check-out counter by starting to carry bananas and milk for the lady who the plastic bag refers to as ‘his maker’.And then the bag believes it has a purpose, serving as all purpose utility tool for its user.The bag watches her play and work,carries her belongings, accompanies her everywhere,all the while he is trying to make sense of the world .He has his moment of sensuality with the touch of a human skin,when she uses him as an ice-pack.But soon the shine wears out and he is relegated to the bins and the hence starts his journey in vain to re-unite with his maker.
Ramin Bahrani has given life to something as domestically mundane and as the routine plastic bag. He does so by giving the plastic bag a voice and cognisance. It is demonstrated by the the way it uses air,as if to breathe, crawl, fly, land, navigate, float among other things. That I have refered to the plastic bag as ‘he’ and not ‘it’ should say that Bahrani has infused such life, humaneness and soul to the plastic bag that one would wonder in amazement at the thought process behind it.
Meanwhile, the plastic bag breaks away from the vast landfills and continues his quest to new worlds,where humans have gone but nature has survived .Wandering, he finds a companion.The plastic bag’s brief air ballet romance with the red plastic bag and the embracing smooch is just sublime. The wind though,had other plans and they drift apart,leaving him with his existential worries.After all efforts fail, he proceeds to the 'Pacific vortex' where billions of plastic bags are circling the ocean in a vortex and he tries to find peace and identify itself among peers, but can’t and breaks away from it.
Plastic Bag is a bitter-sweet short film that will make you feel sad after watching it .But you will be happy that you are sad after watching that .That feeling is something unique. A short film that says such profound issues in such an unassuming ways that someone who remains unimpressed and uneffected is indeed plastic. Bahrani has given the plastic bag a personality . In itself,this is not the story of the lifespan of a plastic bag, it is just a span of time in its eternal existence. To animate the inanimate and to such stunning results while making a strong environmental point that it leaves you with a lilting feeling. Set in a post apocalyptic world, cinematically the plastic bag doesn’t stick out as a sore thumb and is actually very organic in nature,alike its chemical organic polymer composition.
The voice by Werner Herzog has the right pinch of melancholy and dry humour to it.Running for 18 minutes, Plastic Bag manages to be funny, thought-provoking, emotive and beautiful.There are legitimate questions by a very intelligent plastic bag. How does he feel to be part of the environmental crisis ? He just wonders why his maker chose to give it such a gift of indestructibility? How long is an eternity..and how does one cope with such a curse ? Why did man, an active observer create this thing that will only be an eternal passive observer of time?
Directed by Ramin Bahrani
Story by Jenny Jenkins, Ramin Bahrani
Voice Werner Herzog
Cinematography Michael Simmonds
Music Kjartan Sveinsson
