Private Project

Alone and Apart from the Whole World

During the worldwide corona lockdown at the end of March 2020, the filmmakers decided to create a special diary.
They asked friends and collaborators to record and share their observations in images and texts.
You see ambulances doing their rounds to get applauded in Spain, empty shelves in supermarkets in Germany and isolated streets that normally bustle with life during the lockdown. You hear about isolation, the will to go on and the hope for social, political and economic change.
The images were taken in Berlin and Brandenburg, in Vienna, Barcelona, and Houston, in France and Israel.

The film was an attempt to reach out during a time of social isolation.

With texts written by Tanya Berndsen, festival director Film Without Borders e.V., Silvia Wehner, owner of a hairdressing salon in Brandenburg, and Atefeh Kheirabadi, artist from Iran living in Berlin.

  • Anna Faroqhi
    Director
    A Mask For Everyone
  • Haim Peretz
    Director
    Symphony of a Small City
  • Atefeh Kheirabadi, Tanya Berndsen, Silvia Wehner
    Writer
  • Faroqhi Peretz Film Production
    Producer
  • Atefeh Kheirabadi
    Key Cast
    "herself"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Allein und getrennt von der ganzen Welt
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes 38 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 30, 2020
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Country of Filming:
    France, Germany, Israel, Spain, United States
  • Language:
    English, German
  • Shooting Format:
    digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Distribution Information
  • Faroqhi Film Production
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Anna Faroqhi, Haim Peretz

Anna Faroqhi & Haim Peretz are artists and authors of documentary films and video essays. They have been working together since 2003, collaborating as a team and undertaking individual projects.
They create films, design exhibitions and do projects for film and graphic novel in schools and cultural institutions.
Faroqhi is also an author of graphic novels.
They both teach video to students of music and opera directing at Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" Berlin.

In their work, they portray life in the big cities with the reoccurring topics of migration and lifelong learning.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

We made this short film responding to the disturbing situation of the lockdown due to coronavirus. It was made thanks to the generous support of friends and collaborators who sent in their videos, images and words.

Where does the title come from?

From the text of a participant, Atefeh Kheirabadi. In our opinion, she very aptly formulated the debacle many people suffered from - sudden physical isolation with rapid input of daily news.

How was the film made? Where do the images and texts come from?

It was made because of our almost physical need to come into contact with each other in times of isolation.
We had already started researching for a youth project in Brandenburg near Berlin and suddenly couldn't get to our participants and film locations. The university we teach at was "shut down" and the semester declared a digital one.
But felt important to us to find an expression for these worldwide and unusual occurrences. And we wanted to formulate this together with others, and from different perspectives.

Who are the contributors?

The people we approached first were collaborators from past and current projects, some of them linked to our freelance work with the Festival Without Borders. There are hidden stories and connections. F.e. the author of many texts is Silvia Wehner, a hairdresser from a small village in Brandenburg. Thanks to the connection made during a film we made with her in 2019, she took on as an apprentice Alidad Jafari, a refugee from Afghanistan. He also made some images from empty streets and his friends in a refugee home playing soccer.
Whenever a friend wrote an email reaching out, we would ask her or him to send us an image.

There are many empty pictures in the film - intention or lack?

Both. The question arose for us and all those involved: How do you express absence? Can you see a pandemic?
The news at the time reported of deaths, overcrowded hospitals, scandals about nose-mouth masks and of people fearing for their existence. The authors of this film had all this in mind. They were trying to formulate their own, subjective perception in images and words. Public and private experience are different. But there are overlaps. This has always interested us in our cinematic work.

For more on the work of Anna Faroqhi & Haim Peretz: www.faroqhiperetz.com