Eggregores' Theory, The (2024)

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81. VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

39. VENICE FILM CRITICS' WEEK OPENING FILM

Gargantua Film Distribution

I don't remember exactly

how I lost sight of her.

She faded...

Like the color of paintings

after too much light.

And how to describe what it used to be?

What it felt like?

I just remember a lightning strike

and the strongest heartbeat.

I don't know whether it was

a good or a bad thing.

At that time

things were different.

Then they started to change.

Good morning Lublich city.

The warning level for today

is once again very low.

We wish everyone

a safe, happy day.

Eliofilm, Il Varco Cinema

and NAFFINTUSI present

a film by Andrea Gatopoulos

I remember it started suddenly.

Out of the blue.

Some people died, and they said

it was just a heart attack.

But later autopsies couldn't

figure out which problem it was.

Then there were many more.

At first

people thought they disappeared.

They hung missing posters on the walls

but they were found

mostly in their houses.

All dead in mysterious circumstances.

Someone had been alone.

Others in groups,

either idling or dancing.

Silent or

in the middle of conversations.

It took a while to figure out

what this new disease was.

Of course, it made everyone paranoid.

There was nothing else on TV.

There was some kind of

contagion mechanism,

but it was unclear how it worked.

They made tests but found nothing.

They were about to give up

when a hypothesis suddenly arose.

It came from a linguistics university,

from a professor who saw

his very own mother dead

with a book in her hands.

He said that there might have been

something in the book

that it could be related to paper,

some new form of mold or bacteria

that was proliferating there.

A little while later, he was proven wrong,

but not completely.

It was discovered that a specific word

had become poisonous to humankind,

and that it couldn't be read

or written or spoken,

nor even looked at.

But they could not say which word it was.

Or it would have k*lled everyone.

That's when they advised us

to stop reading, writing,

and sometimes speaking altogether.

Some people started

going around with earplugs.

Others tore out their ears or eyes.

Others started going around

blindfolded or with helmets.

That was the time when she

decided to stop talking to me for a while.

For fear we would hurt each other.

Our long phone calls

didn't happen anymore.

At some point, I got the news

she lost her mother

because of the poisonous word.

She became lonely and dark, they said.

She spent her days praying, they said.

A time of political turmoil followed.

There were huge fights

in the parliament.

One party accused the other of

not being able to solve the crisis,

or to give answers to citizens.

Extremists came out stronger.

Crowds started gathering and protesting

in demand for a solution.

It was total chaos.

To address the problem

they hired a team

of data scientists

and gave them all the budget

they would need.

They built a machine that started

to cross-reference all the available data.

Soon the machine found the word.

Then everything

containing that word

was erased from history.

The scientists received global praise

and were dismissed.

And the crisis was solved.

People started coming back to the streets,

timidly, scared.

Some decided to keep staying in.

Of course, the

surveillance techniques

that were put into place

were permanently stayed.

I remember tried to call her

again and again.

She would not pick up.

One day she just said...

"I dont want to hurt you."

And then hung up on me.

They told me she believed

she had caused the death of her mother.

They told me she was involved

in some conspiracy against the government.

I didn't believe it.

I went below her window

and shouted her name.

She wouldn't open.

Sometime later,

to the disbelief of everyone.

A second word popped up.

This time it was much worse.

They found out the poisonous part

of the vocabulary was expanding.

And that almost every day

one new word would become

fatal to hear or to write.

Panic spread.

Unfortunately, mass graves were opened.

Then it was announced

that it was forbidden to talk

or write until further notice.

But people started being very restless.

Voices spread of the fact

that the poison would affect words around

which there was too much discussion.

People wanted to find out who

was the culprit as soon as possible..

Libraries were the first to be attacked.

Books were burned.

Cinema archives were destroyed.

Poets and novelists were burned

together with their houses.

Some others hanged.

In the span of a few nights

most of the words were poisonous.

Everything was destroyed in silence.

By then she had disappeared

from my life.

Her house had become vacant.

It felt like someone broke into

her apartment looking for something.

Coming in through the open door

I saw in a corner the shawl

I had given her some months before.

And the piano, where she used

to play her beautiful music.

But it was broken.

I wanted to tell her that

there was nothing to fear.

That we could be together even

without speaking a single word.

That for me, it would have been enough.

But she was gone.

At some point, the machine proposed

a new language.

It was very hard to learn

because you couldn't translate it

from existing language.

It was spread through television

using images and drawings.

But it was created to fit

very practical needs.

I tried to write her a letter

I could give her one day

if I ever found her again.

But there was no word to tell her

how much I missed her.

How I cursed the disease

for tearing us apart.

Or how in the back of my head

I was starting to think that it was all

just a big trick played on all of us.

And how would she be able

to answer me?

There was no words for her to say:

"The last thing I want on earth

is to hurt you

"I hope we will meet in heaven.

"I am praying for you."

The only thing that stayed the same

was her silence.

But I don't know why.

It was hurting less and less

with each day.

There's no doubt here

that science has failed us,

The only explanation for this

is in the Eggregores' Theory.

But what is an eggregore?

An accumulation of social energy

around words or ideas

that loaded with hate and hard feelings,

become deadly to humankind.

People should understand it's not

the time for philosophical debates now

nor for quarreling around ideas and so on.

If something like this happens again,

this time it will k*ll us all.

Good morning Lublich city.

The Machine has assured us

another safe and productive day,

We recommend, like always,

maximum caution when talking in groups

and wish you all the very best.

Time passed.

We started to forget.

To get used.

In general, the economic conditions

and the main stock market indexes

went back to their former numbers.

Yet the cities remained empty,

and most of the social activities

didn't exist anymore.

No one missed them

for some strange reason.

Remnants of the old world

still survived.

Abandoned libraries full of books

no one dares to read anymore.

An old history buried in the dust.

I thought I'd never see her again.

But recently, as I was

walking back from my job,

I suddenly saw her.

She was standing on

the other side of the sidewalk.

I looked at her

and saw in her face a glimpse

of some haunting feeling.

But I didn't know how

to put it into words.

We looked at each other's eyes,

full of fear.

The fear that an eggregore

would develop among us.

I think she felt the same.

She walked away into the night

and disappeared forever from my life.

Eventually I thought it was better

to shred those letters in pieces

and throw them away.

I had many things to do,

and in one way or another

life had to go on.

So I did it.

I remember it was a rainy day of November,

the sixth or seventh.

Bread was 5.99 per kilogram.

And it was kind of cold.

But, you know, all in all,

it was nothing I couldn't stand.