Mantis

Confined within the rooms of a municipal building in Izamal, Mexico, the film traces the material reality of a local bureaucracy, documenting the unending routines of its workers as they operate under the habitual weight of daily processes.

Documents the existence of Zhou Bao Yang, an 86 year old from China, who resides in the suburban outskirts of Los Angeles. The absences in Zhou’s life are only alluded to, and the causes of her discontent, if any, remain concealed. Originally translated from German into English, the film features passages translated into Chinese and narrated in Taishanese, Zhou’s spoken dialect. The words belong to the fictional schoolboy of Swiss author Robert Walser, who notes, “A boy can speak words of great wisdom and great stupidity at practically the same moment.”