CIFF 2014: ‘The Word’ perfectly illustrates the dangers of modern communication
Most of Lila and Janek’s conversations happen over Skype or text messages. They’re rarely within 10 feet of each other, and yet they are madly in love, or whatever you call that insane obsessive need to own another human being that teenagers – and frankly lots of adults – have. The reason for this distance is the result of Janek having betrayed Lila’s trust, and she doesn’t want to speak to him until he does something to make up for it: kill the other girl. This conversation takes place through text online. There’s something darkly humorous about a sniveling kid, with his One Direction haircut, texting how utterly miserable he is without the one he loves, complete with little weepy-face graphics. But one trip onto Facebook or Twitter will show you this is a sadly realistic depiction of millennial relationships.