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The internet is a foreign country, and nowhere more so than inside the survivalist fiction video game, DayZ.
Here, under the guise of their avatars, players from around the world interact, explore, cultivate food and kill the odd zombie. In something of a bravura filmmaking experiment, a French film crew spends 900 hours there and the resulting documentary, Knit’s Island, is filmed entirely within this virtual world.
As they get to know other players, avatar to avatar, the mysterious, post-apocalyptic rural landscape is revealed as a meeting place, where stories, ideas and friendships are shared. Slowly the players drop their masks to reveal their realities, their daily lives, their relationships of love and friendship. Somewhere, in the borderlands of the internet, strangers find community.
With beautiful in-game cinematography and filmic editing, Knit’s Island delves into a world beyond the world, and explores the first steps towards the virtualisation of our lives.