Plastic Bag (2009)

A plastic bag, thrown out in the trash, attempts to find his way back to his owner and along the way discovers the world.

Director:

Ramin Bahrani

Writers:

Ramin Bahrani, Jenni Jenkins (story)

Stars:

Werner Herzog, Barbara Weetman

Cast

Cast overview:
Werner Herzog	...	Plastic Bag (voice)
Barbara Weetman	...	Maker

Storyline

A plastic bag, thrown out in the trash, attempts to find his way back to his owner and along the way discovers the world.

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Plot Keywords:

plastic bag | search | pollution | underwater photography | jellyfish | 

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Genres:

Short | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 September 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Полиэтиленовый пакет

Filming Locations:

Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Noruz Films (I), Gigantic Pictures, ITVS

Technical Specs

Runtime:

18 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

This short is featured on the Canadian Blu-ray and DVD release for My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009), released in 2010.

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Quotes

Plastic Bag: [final lines] Did my maker exist or have I created her in my mind? Why was my moment of joy so brief? And yet, like a fool, I still have hope I will meet her again. If I do I will tell her just one thing: "I wish you had created me so that I could die."

User Reviews

Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world... Bahrani/Herzog style

Ramin Bahrani is one of the world's most promising filmmakers right now - his first three features, Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, and Goodbye Solo, reveal an artist at work who is interested in showing lives as they are, or how they should be, even in the unfortunate circumstances the characters are in (working a cart, living in a Queens ghetto, readying to die). With Plastic Bag, one might think this is going to be a short-film version of what Wes Bentley's character did in American Beauty, filming "the most beautiful thing in the world". But it's deeper than that, more touching. It takes a rare eye and heart to make something this moving, a saga of a bag that, by way of a 'voice' by Werner Herzog (that unmistakable Bavarian soul put into it).

It might remind one of a few other movies or stories - immediately I thought of tales where a character is left behind, a machine used to serve a purpose until it has none, like WALL-E or A.I. But Bahrani means to show more than that, and it actually fits well into his oeuvre so far. What does this Plastic Bag do isn't a concern as much as who 'it' is. This may sound pretentious, but the way it's presented it's done like a poem or a short story that on the surface is cute and underneath reveals much about the human condition. How would we want to live, or be, as a plastic bag, happy to be used and have an owner, upset by the competition of a dog, and then tossed aside in a garbage heap? It's hard to describe how moving the film is, and how wonderful it's shot and scored, until you actually see it. It can be seen online now at youtube, and I recommend it as one of those must-see short films, like Un chien Andalou.