11 - Shirkers (2018) Lost and Found? Tracing Transsensorial Trauma in a True-crime Road Movie
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2023
Summary
Sandi Tan’s Shirkers (2018) opens with the soft pulsating tones of vibraphones as the scribbled credit titles ‘A Netflix Original Documentary’ appear in white penmanship over a black screen. The gentle reverb of the ethereal soundtrack, ‘Waking Up’, is interrupted abruptly by the click of a film roll as scattered light streaks flash across the screen. An establishing shot of a swan gliding across a lake in a park is rolled in reverse as the scene appears as negative-image, while the lilting soundtrack transitions into a shrill mix of static white noise, scratches and sonorous vocals. The audience next observes the same image of a swan gliding in reverse across a lake before the scene cuts to a closeup of a brown leather suitcase on lush green grass. Here, the camera pans slowly and clumsily to a hand gently clutching the handle of the suitcase. The camera traces up the hand towards the face of a young bespectacled Sandi Tan lying on the grass with her eyes closed (See Fig. 11.1). Sounds of crackling static noise pepper the scene before the off-screen voice of Sandi finds their way to the audience:
When I was 18, a long time ago now, I had the idea that you found freedom by building worlds inside your head. That you had to go backwards in order to go forwards. That little kids had the answers to everything.
A montage sequence follows: a wide shot of S (young Sandi Tan) sitting on the edge of a bed, moving game pieces on a whimsically-designed board game that is propped on the same leather suitcase in the earlier scene; close-ups of the board game that features tiny figurines standing in the middle of a bullseye target amidst other quirky hand-drawn artworks of a piano, a scooter, a dog, just to name a few (See Fig. 11.2); a reverse-footage of vehicles driving through a tunnel; a static shot of S and a small boy standing by a shop front with mannequins on display before walking away. The opening sequence returns to a medium close-up of young Sandi Tan lying on the patch of grass with earplugs in her ears and a vintage camera slung across her neck.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Transnational Crime Cinema , pp. 199 - 217Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2022