SYNOPSIS

In the dim flicker of the night lights, we step into the immigrant workers’ world. A vulnerable space in between belonging, shown through a brief time gap of closing time of the street shops. Forgetting that they are still exposed, trapped in the neon night frames, touchingly unprotected from the outside gaze. The most honest moment of the day, with all the hours of hard physical work visible, while workers perform the closing operations. Reality starts to glitch, sides of the window switch and the inequality of immigrant workers comes to light.

INTENTION

Closing Time plays on the audience’s perspective — it subtly messes with our minds, making us question society’s passivity. After moving from Croatia to Scandinavia, I found myself stuck between two worlds and witnessing intolerance towards immigrant workers throughout Europe. I feel ashamed of being Croatian when seeing the brutal violence against workers from Nepal and Thailand in my home country. In the North, intolerance wears a different dangerous mask — it is concealed in the far-right laws. That is why I want to talk about all these layers, using shop closing time as a metaphor: a fragile moment in between belonging, but also in between public and private — where workers stand so exposed, yet completely unseen! The idea is that the dreamy, stunning night visuals of the street shops draw us in, and then the raw reality of workers’ personal stories wakes us up. As the film progresses, reality distorts, and we start to wonder: on which side of the street window are we standing?

By consciously eliminating the distance between the immigrant workers in several European countries, this film is generating their intimate encounter under the flickering night lights.