'Songbird' Preview: What happens in a world where Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown last till 2024?
While vaccinations have already begun to slowly be distributed throughout the world and lockdowns have become a matter of choice for the governments, 'Songbird' imagines a world where the lockdown was properly enforced and that despite that, the Covid-19 virus continued to spread, mutating into an even deadlier Covid-23 four years later. As the virus worsens and quarantine zones are targeted, once bike messenger races against the lockdown boundaries to get to his girlfriend when things take a turn for the worse.
'Songbird' envisions a world that's remained on lockdown not for months, but for years. Set in 2024, this world continues to have to deal with the full weight of the pandemic. People have adjusted to the new reality of living at home, with lockdowns effectively enforced in America by its government. The lockdown, however, has apparently done nothing to stop the spread of the virus and the new mutant strain scientists call Covid-23 is a much, much deadlier virus. Infected Americans are being forced into quarantine camps and the only people allowed outside are those like Nico (KJ Apa), who are somehow immune.
When Nico's girlfriend Sara (Sofia Carson) is taken captive by the CDC after her neighbor gets sick, Nico decides that nothing is going to stop him from getting through the lockdown to get Sara to safety from ruthless government agents. The film is a worst-case scenario look at the severity of a lockdown in the midst of a worsening pandemic, playing on the fears of people who believe that the lockdown is nothing but a way for the government to restrict American freedoms. Armed soldiers run the streets in this new world, ready to shoot people who are disobeying the lockdown, and men in quarantine outfits stand ready to break down doors. America is under martial law and when the virus can get anywhere, no one is safe.
The official synopsis for the film reads: "Immune to the COVID-23 virus, a courier races against time to save the woman he loves from a quarantine camp."
You can watch a trailer for the film below.
'Songbird' will be available on VOD on December 11.
