After screening at over 70 film festivals around the world and qualifying for the 2021 Academy Awards in the Animated Short Film category, the animated short film The Lonely Orbit is finally available online for everyone to see.
The sci-fi drama by Frederic Siegel, Benjamin Morard and Zurich-based creative collective Team Tumult tells a universal story about loneliness, friendship, isolation, digitalisation and hyper-connectivity.
The protagonist of the short film is a satellite technician in perpetual conflict between the loneliness of his work and the desire to meet up with his lifelong friends. Constantly connected virtually, but physically separated by a huge physical distance, the protagonist feels like a satellite orbiting his friends, gravitationally drawn, mentally connected, but physically and socially isolated.
Although conceived back in 2016, The Lonely Orbit recounts a current situation, talks about the technological evolution and the miracles achieved by digital, but also wants to shine a light on a bigger problem. This short film wants to show how digital connection, although useful and sometimes necessary, can lead us to feel disconnected from the real world. In a complex, globalised and digitised society we are all trapped by hyper-connectedness and do not give proper weight to real, physical relationships.
Exploring the problem of isolation from a different perspective, The Lonely Orbit recounts a familiar situation in an original, futuristic and metaphorical way.
With a sci-fi setting, striking aesthetics, impressive attention to detail, precise and limited colour selection and a minimal electronic soundtrack, this short film transports us to a utopian and imaginary atmosphere and moves us.
Enjoy.
Words by Federica Cimorelli
