PROXY. Director's Statement
“PROXY” is the seventh short film in the HUMAN CONCEPTS series, and it examines the unsettling mechanics of proxy wars: the silent but devastating conflicts where powerful nations pull the strings, while smaller countries pay the price. We see it again and again throughout history and across the globe: in Latin America’s long legacy of intervention, in the destruction of Ukraine, and in the endless turmoil across the Middle East. This is not a film about a single war, but about a system and global structure that turns real lives into pawns for the benefit of distant powers.
The central metaphor of the film is a chessboard. We are the pawns: expendable, moved without consent. From our screens and headlines, we are told who the players are, but rarely do we see or understand the cost to those stuck in between. “PROXY” attempts to visualize that feeling of entrapment: the sense of being manipulated by invisible hands in a game where the rules are never fully explained.
Visually, the film is built from a series of symbolic images. Yellow tulip fields set ablaze by creeping dark smoke represent the destruction of innocence, beauty, and potential. The smoke spreads relentlessly, consuming everything in its path. A metaphor for the corruption and violence that ripple through societies affected by war. There are also long, unsettling shots of rows of blue houses in refugee camps, evoking the displacement and loss that often follow these conflicts. These are not abstract visuals; they are visual metaphors for real, shared human experiences.
The film also reflects on the deep interconnectedness of the modern world. We live in a web of political, economic, and digital networks. Structures that link us together while also entangling us. In this system, individual voices are often lost. The smallest countries, the most vulnerable communities, and ordinary people are pulled into cycles of conflict far beyond their control. This is the quiet violence of the proxy world: it rarely knocks at the front door, but it shapes every room in the house.
“PROXY” is not a film that offers solutions. It is a film that offers space to feel, to reflect, and to connect the dots between global power struggles and the everyday lives they destroy. It is an emotional portrait of a hidden reality many live, and many more choose not to see.
Thank you for watching! I hope the film awakens some thoughts and emotions.
From Costa Rica with love,
Andrés