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Sundance premiere Luz explores how VR can help us find connection in the real world

In Flora Lau's Luz, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week, there’s no downside to VR. It’s just another way for humans to connect.

We're so used to seeing virtual reality depicted nefariously in films like The Matrix, Virtuousity(a forgotten '90s classic) and The Lawnmower Man, it's genuinely surprising to see something that treats VR in a potentially positive way. And in the case of the film's two lonely leads, art gallery worker Ren (Sandrine Pinna) and pseudo-gangster Wei (Xiaodong Guo), VR serves as a life raft of human connection, something that could help them find peace in a world where they both feel adrift. But the virtual reality hardware in the film — including ski mask-like goggles, pointed finger sensors that resemble a witch's nails — is both a step ahead, and slightly behind, where we are today.

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