Framed by Curtains is a poetic essay whose hero is Hong Kong, a city where the attributes and cultural traditions of West and East intermingle. Santos made the film in 1999, two years after Hong Kong ceased to be a British protectorate and reverted to China. The lens captures the melancholy of the landscape and an air of mystery around the city’s people in a way that is reminiscent of Jean Vigo’s avant-garde masterpiece À propos de Nice (1930). However, the intertitles of Santos’ work add a political dimension—poetic slogans comment on the past and future not only of Hong Kong but of the entire planet. Santos reminds us that we perceive human relationships and the world by framing what we see.
