Container #20 Unrest
Along with a few reviews and interviews with Cyril Schäublin, the director of Unrest.
Hello. Thank you once again for joining us.
Tonight’s Screening:
Unrest, Cyril Schäublin, 2022, 93m
New technologies are transforming a 19th-century watchmaking town in Switzerland. Josephine, a young factory worker, produces the unrest wheel, swinging in the heart of the mechanical watch. Exposed to new ways of organising money, time and labour, she gets involved with the local movement of the anarchist watchmakers, where she meets Russian traveller Pyotr Kropotkin.
Schäublin’s breakthrough film is a stunning study of the industrialisation of time and space and its intersection with the individual and the commons. At its core, Unrest regards the rise of modern capitalism. Filmed largely with non-professionals, and with a distinct visual style that compositionally divides the image into various elements—with protagonists often tucked into the margins of an image, and surrounded by society—Schäublin’s film is both conceptually and aesthetically provocative.
Unrated 15+ With thanks to Alpha Violet.
Additional Readings (for those who have the time and curiosity):
Since we like Unrest we thought we’d share a few reviews with The New York Times Artforum, Variety and interviews between Schäublin and Film Comment, Filmmaker Magazine and Screen Slate (particularly enjoyable since Schäublin is pleasantly thoughtful.)
Upcoming Screenings:
6 June: Cyril Schäublin’s Unrest
20 June: Ashley McKenzie’s Queens of the Qing Dynasty (pictured above)
4 July: James Bidgood’s Pink Narcissus (in partnership with Prototype.)
We’re happy to note that Pink Narcissus will be paired with the Australian premiere of Peter Strickland’s short Blank Narcissus (pictured below)—a very Strickland tribute to the work of Bidgood (and also Wakefield Poole.)
Thank you. We look forward to catching you tonight for our screening of Unrest, a stunning study of the industrialisation of time and space, and industrial action around a watch factory and then in a fortnight’s time for Queens of the Qing Dynasty, which we should point out is absolutely not a period film. (But is an intricate telling of an unusual relationship with a startling sense of formal play and detailed sound design that blurs foley and music.)