Offside, 2025

Offside is a short film of 20 minutes. It has been screened as a video installation with 4 K UHD -projection in a black box and 2.1. sound with subwoofer under a bench. After being “ghosted” by the goalkeeper of a local football team, a young woman convinces herself that her love interest is in fact harboring a darker secret. Driven by paranoia and heartbreak, she documents her “investigation” through livestreams, where the webcam becomes both an accomplice and a witness. Soon her life revolves around decoding hidden messages in the football team’s movements, each action reinforcing her belief in a hidden truth. When does limerence turn into a conspiracy theory? The project stems from my interest in why people embrace conspiracy theories. It explores human needs—recognition, belonging, and understanding—that social media complicates. Framed as an unrequited love story, the film examines how algorithms shape relationships, fueling parasocial connections and alienation. Rather than depicting conspiracy theorists as threats, the film humanizes them by showing how desire and uncertainty distort reality. Offside is an attempt to highlight how subjective experience increasingly rivals verifiable knowledge, undermining critical inquiry. The protagonist’s worldview and mental state is visualized through choreography on the football field, nightclub, and her room, shaped by editing, sound, and music. Exclusion is expressed in imagery, where the field becomes a stage governed by social codes she cannot penetrate.