Shangai Trance

David Verbeek began his film studies in 1999 at the New York Film Academy. The same year he went to the New School University of New York, where he studied cinema, photography and philosophy; he graduated in 2001, and then completed his training at the Dutch Film and Television Academy (2001-2005). As part of his studies he made a feature and several shorts, including alt.suicideholiday.net, which was selected in Premiers Plans in 2006. He has also worked as a photographer on several projects. The layers in Shangai Trance are interwoven, all developing at the same time, the film cutting from one layer to the next and back again. The eye of the film itself functions as an observer of the contemporary metropolis. Meaning that the city as a living entity in itself is the real protagonist of the film. Next to focusing on the characters and the developments in their relationships, the film also consists of intermissions where the city itself is brought to the foreground. As the layers of observation develop, the images of the city itself take on new meaning. All adding up to the initial question: what or who is Shanghai?