Machines

For me, Machines is a quiet melodrama about loneliness and distance. A sober and real portrayal of broken relations created by poverty in one of the world’s richest countries.
The film portrays a growing rift in a mother-son relationship over a cold winter day in Oslo, Norway. The backdrop of the story is the intrusion of the app economy into the life of working class, where closeness and poor employment conditions do not align with personal life. The mother dreams of a closer relationship with her son. A dream of a more dignified life with possibilities.
But she sacrifices closeness with her son to provide him with a birthday present that represents the dream of normalcy and a fuller life.
But her sacrifice is rejected by the son, whose disappointment over her long-time absence ruins their relationship. The absence has made the rift so big, that no birthday present can heal it.
My aim with the film is to show how today’s economic circumstances and increasing poverty destroy mutual intentions and foster alienation between people.
The machine becomes an image of an unstoppable, yet necessary, mode of survival in capitalist society of today. And a deterministic one at that – does our main character really have a choice, but to continue?
I fear that the fuel that run these machines is ruthless and crushes dreams and closeness to those you love.