Movie That Predicted Covid-19
Takashi Doscher’s movie Only cannot be dropped in horror, sci-fi or action film slots. It is a species film, about the umbilical cord between us and nature.
Only, starring Leslie Odom Jr. and Freida Pinto is about a COVID-19 look alike. What is eerie about the film is that it was released in March 2020, the year managers told us to go home because of the pandemic.
Takashi Doscher, who wrote and directed Only, had no way of knowing about it. The virus in his movie is blood coming out from body parts, but a virus nonetheless. I think it only attacks women because of the scene where Freida Pinto’s character bandages her breasts and seals them with duck tape.
This movie made me remember lockdown. Desolation, don’t you remember 2020? The world was at home because of government restrictions, but it still needed milk, bread and toilet paper so we went to the store. Streets were not just empty, but desolate like scenes in Only.
But how is it possible to have a movie released the same year the infamous COVID-19 forced humanity into lockdown? Only is still. Granted, nature doesn’t move much in winter because trees are bare but still, there is some movement that indicates life. Everything in this movie is still.
Futility. The two lovers are trying to run away from the virus but it is futile. Running to where exactly? To nature I suppose, like that waterfall. Without sounding alarmist, our present reality is worse because the virus is in the air. Letta Mbulu, the famous South African singer and composer has a song: There’s Music in the Air.
No music for us, because we don’t want to desist from activities that soiled the air in the first place.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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