Gaoyuan Chen

"Sheep(羊)" in Chinese sounds like "Yang(阳)" and is often used to refer to COVID-19 positive(阳性) patients. I used this depersonalized nickname as a starting point to capture my observations and feelings during my three months of life in locked-down Shanghai in 2022, using a darkly humorous visual style.

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The film was created using Unreal Engine 5. The camera follows a sheep, showing multiple scenes of magical realism to provide a metaphor for the reality of the situation. The predominantly red and green colours suggest the political significance that the authorities attach to colours (red is masculine, green is feminine). The scene of the pig eating in the toilet corresponds to the living conditions of the citizens of Shanghai, who were all locked up in their homes at the time.