Plastic Bag is the story of a polybag that is separated from its owner and attempts to make its way back to her. Told from the bag’s perspective, the story takes an interesting turn with the polybag’s search for companionship and its attempts at escape from its loneliness.
The broad premise of this movie can be hilariously misunderstood, which is the beauty of it. If the idea of a soul not inhabited by a human body looking for its maker sounds like a religious concept to you, then the movie may not work. In today’s time with the Global Climate Strike taking the front seat in the hall of universal concerns, this movie is more relevant than ever.
It follows the very dramatic and humanizing journey of a plastic bag, make no mistakes-a very emotional plastic bag, while it travels hopefully from one place to another, changed yet persisting, in search of its maker and hence companionship.
If you swapped the plastic bag with a blonde this short film could’ve been a very inspiring rom-com as well.
However, the film is hardly funny once you realize that if the plastic bag had a choice it would’ve made better decisions than the humans that created and perpetuated its use.
The narration is great as the voice of Werner Herzog perfectly captures the entirety of the bag’s lonely existence. The innocence of the plastic bag that persists from the beginning of the film till the end and the hope of an end to its misery is evident in Herzog’s narration. The true genius of the narration is obvious from the description of the ‘Maker’s Beastie’ as we can hear the voice subtly shaking with disgust, contempt and jealousy.
The film has been written, directed and edited, Ramin Bahrani, which I believe is how the distance between the vision of an extra-human yet human protagonist and its execution was covered making the realization of the idea into Eighteen and a half minutes of brilliant storytelling.
It would be redundant at this point to mention that the idea of the plastic bag having actual feelings is a new and original one. We often assume the non-living or the less evolved to have human-like intellect and create stories bringing pets and toys to life. But this is mainly done in children’s literature and films as it isn’t deemed sophisticated enough for adults to enjoy and appreciate. A few masterpieces aside, adult treatment of this sort of films is a rarity.
This short film completely butchers that stereotype by narrating from the perspective of a plastic bag. At certain points, one might feel terribly sad for the plastic bag and rejoice in its’ union with its many temporary companions every single time.
Not only does this make this a fresh concept but it also makes it an increasingly creative one. This is the beauty of the story given by Jenni Jenkins and Ramin Bahrani.
The music might seem too hopeful or upbeat at certain times but it is clearly justified at every moment. Composed by Kjartan Sveinsson of Sigur Ros, the music of the film mostly hits the right spots and never overbears. It might seem too hopeful or upbeat at times, even as we remember that the film staunchly follows the point of view of the plastic bag.
Which is why the devastating truth of humanity’s future is displayed with upbeat, almost cheerful music in the background. This seemed jarring at first but a marvellous detail that one realizes later. The realization is the fact that this is the story of the plastic bag and not of a human, hence the plight of humanity is just as easily addressed and ignored as that of other species is by humans, only with respect to themselves. The concern is always shown in equal measure to how one is affected by a certain situation and here although the plastic bag is upset it isn’t devastated as a human would be. Thus, while we compare the qualities of humans with those of this particular ‘fictional’ plastic bag we need to keep in mind that this is still very much the plastic bag’s narrative.
The journey to the seeming haven for the plastic bag-the vortex leaves the audience rooting for the plastic bag until it turns haunting at the images of life interacting with this epidemic that humans have themselves created. The movie makes one contradict their perception.
A person can get completely consumed by the story of this plastic bag because of the sheer brilliance of it all. One might even be sympathetic to the plight of the lonely plastic bag and hope for an end to its life in isolation, but only until the realization of one’s own humanity strikes.