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For the second year in a row, De Cinema presents a selection of VR films: experiences that blur the boundaries between the visible and the invisible and invite you to look, feel, and experience in a different way. In addition to THE GREAT ESCAPE, we are also screening SHELTER.
In THE GREAT ESCAPE, the viewer is stuck like a third geranium on the windowsill in the living room of Patrick, a lonely 38-year-old man. The geraniums are bored to death and constantly frustrated — with themselves, the windowsill, and Patrick. They dream of seeing the world, but are literally rooted to their spot. Meanwhile, Patrick moves around freely but never leaves the house, trapped in his own solitary routine. Each day starts the same: watering the plants, making coffee, feeding the goldfish, activating his Roomba, collecting the advertising leaflets, and then daydreaming by the window.
The monotony is broken when Patrick buys a smartphone to connect with the outside world. The geraniums secretly steal the phone and post a selfie in a plant exchange app, where a woman named Sonja notices them. She convinces Patrick to trade the geraniums for her snake plant. The geraniums are excited to be outside with Patrick, until a conversation with a dying bouquet of roses reveals that the outside world is not so kind to plants. The ensuing existential crisis leads the plants toward their near demise and ultimately to a new home with a strikingly familiar setting.
