The rules of the game are clear: seven stories, each filmed in a single long take, all set in different hotel rooms. Director Zhengfan Yang quickly establishes the approach of his film, allowing us to immerse ourselves in the stories.A cleaning lady performing her work in an unusual setting, a security investigation involving two guests at a cheap hotel, a banquet hall hosting a wedding that holds some secrets, a pregnant woman preparing to give birth at the end of the world, a girl live-streaming her life to followers whose existence we doubt, the reflections of a lonely man in a barren room before heading to work, and a tableau that portrays clashing lives that coexist in a single space.Hotel rooms embody a contradiction; they are personal spaces that reveal a lot about their occupants’ essence, yet they lack the elements of separation and permanence that define an individual’s relationship with their home. As one of the guests in the second story states, “A hotel room is a personal space that shouldn’t be searched without permission.” The police officer responds sharply,”But the hotel itself is a public space.” From this paradox, the film Stranger unfolds: exploring the ability of a place to be both personal and public, temporary and permanent, private and accessible at the same time.Each story can be a standalone short film. However, the choice of Zhengfan Yang to arrange them in an anthology accumulates the logic of varying emotional charges and ideas that intertwine to weave the director’s vision of what presence can mean in a space like a hotel. It is true that the anthology inherently invites comparison between its stories and leads us to prefer some stories over others, yet it remains a skillful narrative device, especially in a work of a contemplative nature.Stranger isn’t the easiest film to watch, but it rewards those who view it and think about it with sufficient attention. Perhaps that’s what led it to win the Grand Prize at the “Proxima” competition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which is dedicated to alternative cinematic experiences.Ahmed Shawky