The film tells the story of a girl who has to leave her apartment because of the economic crisis. Without a place to stay, she goes to her sister’s in the hope of staying with her. The older sister, realising she has no bedroom to offer gets overwhelmed, only to realise IKEA is the solution - especially now that they’ve lowered the prices on thousands of products, like mattresses. She then embarks on a journey to IKEA where we’ll see the community helping her out and uniting ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with each other. This same sentiment continues at the store with the retailer’s coworker. Finally, we see the sisters sharing an emotional moment at home, made possible by IKEA’s commitment to stand with society and help out when most needed. The film is a homage to all those who help each other during difficult times.

CONTEXT

Spanish society has always been known for its solidarity when things get tough.

IDEA

Based on this insight, we brought to life the popular Spanish saying ‘arrimar el hombro’, ‘stand shoulder to shoulder’ in English, as a visual metaphor to symbolise how society helps each other during difficult times.

IKEA wanted to celebrate those who came together and united, whilst drawing inspiration from them and lowering the price of hundreds of their products.

SOLUTION

To bring to life the concept of ‘standing shoulder to shoulder’ we created a choreography to tell the story of how society helps each other when most needed. The choreography was supported by an iconic Spanish song from the 80s that talks about the rewards of helping each other. To make the song resonate with modern times it was performed by hip, indie band Delaporte.

We wanted to create a very poetic, oniric and aesthetic film that used improv dance with contemporary movements to bring to life such an uplifting and emotional human sentiment. We collaborated with award-winning dance collective to create a bespoke choreography that achieved this sensibility.

The poetic beauty that defines this film results from both the real wonderful characters we encounter and our use of cinematography. We move between reality and choreographed movements endowed with symbolic meaning. We capture moments that feel deeply human, emotional, authentic and alive. We want to entertain the viewer, but we also want viewers to feel something, to acknowledge their own experience in what they see.