Fast culture: The first feature film set in the covid era is already here

They say that timing is everything — but that couldn't be truer for Vancouver filmmaker Mostafa Keshvari. As he watched events unfolding in China in January, and the waves of anti-Asian racism and xenophobia that were rippling around the world, the Persian-Canadian creator had an idea: to make a film about COVID-19. "I came up with the idea in mid-January, at the very earliest stage when it was just known as the Wuhan virus or Chinese virus. We finished the film in mid-February, long before all the restrictions came and before the pandemic," says Keshvari. Corona is set inside an elevator, which Keshvari says represents society, and the different floors represent different stratas of that society. Soon, rumours that someone in the building has coronavirus begin to circulate, and when an Asian woman goes to step on the elevator, people try to keep her out — but she gets in and the elevator ends up getting stuck.