It’s 1993. Post-Romanian Revolution, the small town of Buhuși sees the arrival of the internet, forming communities around imported Western technologies. Surge of Transference traces this rapid evolution, from early peer-to-peer networks to the logics of online late capitalism. How do the residents navigate the gap between polished online imaginaries and the post-industrial realities of everyday life?

With a singular and hypnotic aesthetic, Barcan fluidly shifts between different registers: documentary to personal essay to science fiction, archival to self-shot footage, underscored by the filmmaker’s own voiceover. With this approach, the form of the film reflects the content. "The internet is a hunchback wave”, Barcan declares, and it washes over us until it becomes a flood.

Surge of Transference is screening as part of the New Perspectives block.

GB