By Marc S. Sanders
For a short film with a running time of only thirty-five minutes, Two People Exchanging Saliva (aka DEUX PERSONNES ÉCHANGEANT DE LA SALIVE) offers a lot to tell within its absurdist universe thanks to writers/directors Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh. Reflecting on the film, which I saw during the After Dark collection of shorts at the 2024 AFI Film Festival, my list of imagery grows longer and longer and I am grateful for it. There’s much to remember, even nearly a full week after seeing the film.
Shot within a department store located off the Champs-Élysées within the heart of Paris, the film is a gorgeous black and white presentation with striking lighting to illuminate a wide collection of settings. Shoe racks never looked so ethereal. A staircase leading upward feels very curious. Piles of cardboard boxes feels terrifying before I even know what they are to personify. Yet, the oddities that Musteata and Singh introduce are what tempts you to learn more about the rules they have set up for this fictional cosmos.
Malaise (Luàna Bajrami) is a salesperson at this store and like the rest of the staff, she must exhale her breath directly into the nose of a security guard before starting her shift. She is suppressed by a domineering supervisor, Pétulante (Aurélie Boquien). It cannot be more apparent that Pétulante feels threatened by her best customer’s favorability for Malaise. That customer is Angine (Zar Amir Ebrahimi). Among these three ladies, this comes off like a common soap opera love triangle that has been seen many times before. Yet, the writers/directors throw some spice at this centerpiece.
Within this world, kissing is outlawed, punishable by death. Hence the necessary requirement for a breath smell. Ingest some garlic or other reprehensible aromatic food to divert any temptation from breaking the law. Furthermore, products are sold at a cost of slaps to the face. Several players exhibit the scabs and bruises, as well as nosebleeds, that evidence their purchases. Looking at Angine it’s easy to see she is certainly a high-priced shopper.
With these set ups in place, the story can take off and rely on bold imagery. We witness Malaise’s fear of what can happen if she commits to her attraction for Angine when the apparent crime of kissing occurs within the store. We fear that Pétulante will pounce on prohibitive kissing in order to win her prized client back while getting her underling, Malaise, permanently out of the picture. We see the great lengths of tormented slapping Angine endures in order to have another shopping experience with the innocent Malaise.
The film serves reminders of the nature of punishment if a kiss is committed between two people. The criminals are literally boxed up and disposed in a junk heap of other boxes that encase people just like them. Musteata and Singh’s most powerful shots are of this pile of boxes dumped into a landfill toppling one over the other. It’s like something from George A Romero film, like Night Of The Living Dead. No big effects here. Nothing that looks like a large expense beyond collecting a enormous supply of cardboard boxes. Yet, when piled together in an outdoor area under the shine of their black and white cinematography from Alexandra de Saint Blanquat, it’s terribly haunting.
My wife and I got to speak with Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh on a few occasions during the 2024 AFI Film Festival. They explained how the idea of this dystopian universe came to them while quarantining in their New York home during Covid. They went through the steps of obtaining financial backing and they discovered that it would be more cost effective to shoot the picture in France than in the United States. As well, they had access to a department store in Paris after it had closed for the night. They went through the process of setting their scenes, rehearsing their actors, coordinating lighting and camera positioning within the few hours available to them before sunrise when the store would reopen. Listening to them, I could envision the tight scheduling pressures they must have experienced in making this film.
I also find it interesting that they assembled this film during Covid. Simply shaking hands with others was highly discouraged to avoid a spread of disease. Highly charged debates on reproductive rights are so prominent right now too. In Two People Exchanging Saliva, it’s not hand shaking that is impermissible, it’s something much worse, but also more intimate – kissing. As well, in order to live off of materialism, one must fall victim to an abuse of their bodies, and they have the marks to show for it just beneath their eyes and across their profiles. In this world, people are limited and exposed to the will of a domineering enforcement. I salute the allegories found in the short film. It may sound silly on the surface. Natalie and Alex even laughed while explaining the plot of their film before we had a chance to see it. Still, it is not altogether farfetched. When can we live truly independently without a threat of punishment, when all we want is a will to live and love with one another?
Two People Exchanging Saliva was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2024 AFI Film Festival, and I could not be happier for the filmmakers’ accolades. It’s worthy of its merits. If you can find this outstanding short film I highly encourage you to take a little over a half hour out of your day to experience something entirely unique, while beautifully presented.
Seek out your local art houses for a film short festival coming soon. Two People Exchanging Saliva should be included in any collection that’s being offered. Now I’m hoping an Oscar nomination is on the horizon for Natalie and Alex. Bon Chance!!!!
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 