“Confinementer” (Lockdowns) follows the parallel experiences of a woman--sick with coronavirus, one can assume--and a young girl stuck at home. The first wavers between conscious and subconscious layers of reality in her illness. The younger girl is isolated not only physically from the world she looks at through the window, but also by her mother who silences her.

Born from a short-film series set up by directors Ady El Assal a Govinda Van Maele, where 18 filmmakers received a small budget to create a film, “Confinementer” addresses the topic of children stuck in isolation. “I think children can feel isolated a lot--even when there isn’t a lockdown--and that’s something we never talk about, and so I thought that the lockdown was a good context to talk about it,” said Noesen in an interview.

With memories of the 2020 lockdown still fresh in the public mind, Noesen figured that more audience members would be able to relate to this experience. The clever use of toilet toll packages hints towards the absurdity of that time too.

But it also mirrors wider themes found in Noesen’s art, such as blurred, divided or ambiguous identities: “I have an interest in philosophical questions, but I am also interested in communicating them in a more intimate manner.” In this case, the filmmaker used her own experience with catching the virus and the ensuing isolation to bring her ideas into concrete everyday life experiences.

Though she describes herself as a novice, this isn’t Noesen’s first venture into filmmaking. In 2019, she presented “Livres d’heures” at the Luxembourg City Film Festival. However, “Confinementer” was “still new in many ways,” explains Noesen, adding that this was the first time she worked with professional actors on set. “It was exciting,” she explains, as “we were all learning.” With a small budget and crew to complete the film, all participants found themselves exploring new roles and work methods behind the camera.

“Confinementer” was also novel in that Noesen usually works with art installations, that are an experiment for her to research what she wants to put into her film afterwards. 

The real-life pandemic and lockdown also impacted Noesen’s work, as projects planned for 2020 were spread over two years. This was a good thing, the artist says, as it gave her more time to read and research her topics, and experiment. Now that restrictions are lifted, Noesen prepares to join a residency in Canada in the autumn, and is working on a video installation project, which she later on wants to turn into a narrative-based film. Many more ideas are circulating in her mind, the artist says, though the time to reveal them has not yet come.

In the meantime, Noesen’s art can be viewed . 

The short films issued from El Assal and Van Maele’s initiative can also be viewed .