23 minutes to make you side-eye your phone forever.
Sonzai Zone is a speculative fiction film on intimacy and loneliness after the normalization of ambient communication media. An unlikely encounter between Yún and Souvd takes place in a near-future where social interactions are largely based on the mediation of human presence, known as ‘Sonzai-kan’. Shifting between XR games, Immersion Arcades and spatial home displays, their insidiously orchestrated relationship escalates into extreme idealization. Meanwhile, Souvd’s ex-girlfriend Ntzumi launches into undercover investigation.
Direction
Tapprest builds entire worlds in 23 minutes without exposition dumps.
Cinematography
XR spaces feel both seductive and suffocating, gorgeous and uncanny.
Production
Ambient communication tech feels inevitable, not futuristic.
Director
Emilia Tapprest
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film's 'Sonzai-kan' concept draws from Japanese theories of digital intimacy, where presence becomes a commodity rather than an experience.
The Immersion Arcade sequence was shot in actual VRChat spaces with non-professional avatars, blurring documentary and fiction.
US
