kolkata the last one month of selfisolation has produced a slew of quarantine films that are marked by low budgets and short screen time the demand is so huge that many directors abroad are apparently ordering props to be delivered alongside their groceries dealing with common themes like dystopia and alienation these isolation shorts are exploring existential crisis in both the domestic and social spaces joining this international bandwagon are tollywoods directors too while some of the shorts have relied on simple narratives to explain the importance of staying at home few are more layered and explore the human psyche which oscillates between being magnanimous and selfish during crisis thanks to the surge of free content online it is now possible to sit in ones bedroom and watch what kind of content is being produced by directors working under similar constraints across the globe on march 14 praguebased independent filmmaker paul dean put up a post on his facebook account saying where other people see the end of days creatives see opportunity addressing fellow filmmakers writers actors rentals and gaffers dean invited them to reach the prague city centre the following morning to shoot a short film that could never have been made without millions before within the next 17 hours his short titled coronapocalypse was conceived written produced and shot the plot revolves around what happens when a social media influencer whose every waking moment is streamed online eventually decides to step outside the director also recorded a video on the making of this short where he revealed how 12 hours after filming it on a sunday in prague home quarantine rules were imposed in the country ten days later another short film was premiered online directed by portuguese filmmaker diogo caramujo and dedicated to all those living the terror of covid19 left behind was made during his first seven days in quarantine and was filmed only at night in his garage according to his facebook post caramujo chose to film it this way because during the day he had to be a father husband and a friend describing himself as a leftbehinder in the global pandemic this scifi short takes an extreme vision of the global pandemic crisis the film starts with a message for all survivors about how after the virus mutated caramujo was given an option to nominate two noncontaminated members of his family to enter the ark built by the government then the message goes on to explain the importance of not taking the world for granted since it has only been borrowed to us caramujos next was titled my quarantine day life how coronavirus changed my life where he filmed his twoyearold son in this short he spoke about how life has seen us wash our hands and hearts while changing routines and priorities to forge personal bonds and develop human connections caramujos third work titled mrs ana is about his mother a small grocer in a village through her monologue about her