The Retro

Meshes of the Afternoon

1943 · Dir. Maya Deren · Mystery, Fantasy, Retrospective, Short · 14 min

Showcase · Vol I. LOOK UP

Time fractures, repeats, and slips out of order in this hypnotic short, where a woman moves through the same moments again and again, each time slightly altered. Long before filmmakers like David Lynch, this film understood how memory, identity, and reality can blur into something dreamlike and unsettling. Often cited as a turning point, Meshes of the Afternoon marks cinema’s shift away from linear storytelling toward a more modern language, one that filmmakers are still exploring today.