Ásgeir 'Unbound' by Julien Lassort

Julien Lassort's video for Ásgeir is a complex, brooding science fiction piece on the interconnectivity of humans, in a future where individuals leap between each other's personal VR experiences. 

The four intertwined stories leave out all but the slightest hints of exposition in favour of set pieces coated in Black Mirror-esque digital unease. Lassort manages to establish a convincing cinematic world of the near-future through very ambitious means - it's engrossing, and confusing, and beautifully executed. 

JULIEN LASSORT:

"The track brought to my mind the idea that all lives are connected to each other. Like if everybody was linked together by a mysterious system. I wanted to work on a narrative and visual concept taking place in a realistic and close future. I wanted to show the fantasized life of four characters linked to each other by a virtual reality system. But it would have some sort of bug and things wouldn’t go the way they were supposed to.

"If I had to sum up the concept, I would refer to a Russian doll image where each doll is endlessly nested in another."

"It’s amazing how, soon, we will be able to log on a VR system and live a dream, a fantasy or change life for a moment. I developed my idea on this basis, interlinking each character to another. It’s like you have to be a character of someone's video game in order to play your own game. If I had to sum up the concept, I would refer to a Russian doll image where each doll is endlessly nested in another.

"It was an ambitious film to shoot, with an intimate scene, a stunt, a specific demand on acting, casting, settings, light and frame. It’s very rewarding for a director. In the end, everyone is going to understand their own story, but I hope they are going to be transported by the oneiric atmosphere emerging from it."