One-Way Street 2021

Directed by Erez Pery

Erez Pery, an Israeli filmmaker living in downtown Manhattan, observes the street below from his apartment window while making some cinematic experiments. A fixed camera records from a low floor of a building the passage of passersby at different climatic moments, until leading to a more complex story where the documentary eye turns to the language of (science) fiction. All stimulated by the off-screen sounds of “War of the Worlds”, the famous radio drama by Orson Welles from 1938 that affected its listeners with mass hysteria, believing Martians were attacking earth. The effect of that famous broadcast, combined with seemingly everyday situations and reinforced by suggestive ambient music, provoke a fascination that shatters the naturalistic atmosphere of the initial proposal.