Plot

Mandarin Ducks could be defined as a "black comedy" in which the artists comment on the neo-liberal climate of Western society at the beginning of the 21st century. In a succession of tableau-like scenes, we follow the twists and turns in the relations of ten individuals gathered in an apartment on a warm Sunday evening. In a stylized and fragmentary story that unfolds via monologues and dialogues charged with repressed hostility or unconcealed jealousy and bitterness, the artists explore the areas of tension between people, in particular those domains where social and political conflicts find their reflection in the personal. As the evening progresses, there are subtle shifts in the balance of power and various indications of personal and social disintegration. The overtly artificial acting, the way the actors are filmed and the non-linear narrative shape a strange kind of distance that makes it impossible for the viewer to surrender to a familiar filmic or theatrical "language". Rather, the viewer is confronted with the codes, conventions and underlying ideology of the "formats" that are liberally interwoven into the film.