Violence as Currency; Intimacy as Contraband

An observational note on gesture, control, and the quiet regulation of intimacy

I came across the short film Two People Exchanging Saliva through The New Yorker’s Screening Room. It’s a quiet film—almost architectural in its design, and it left me thinking less about plot and more about gesture.

—— Screening Room ——

Runtime: 36 minutes, 19 seconds
Directors: Natalie Musteata & Alexandre Singh
Source: The New Yorker Screening Room

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In most films, a slap interrupts the story. It signals anger, humiliation, or the moment when something fractures between characters. Here, the slap operates differently. It functions almost like currency.

At one point, toothpaste is obtained through a simple transaction: “Two.” The payment comes in slaps. Not as punishment, but as routine exchange. The moment passes with little reaction, which is precisely what makes it unsettling. Violence circulates calmly in this world.

Later, the toothpaste becomes part of a quieter act. A young woman brushes her teeth before approaching another woman she has been watching. The preparation feels deliberate. Not dramatic, not reckless—simply intentional.

And that is where the film’s logic flips.

Violence appears ordinary. Intimacy becomes the disturbance.

Even the title reinforces that inversion. Two People Exchanging Saliva sounds less like a love story than a clinical description. The language drains romance from the gesture, as though affection must be catalogued like evidence.

Visually, the film maintains the same restraint. Shot in black and white, the environments feel geometric and controlled. The store interior resembles a system more than a place of commerce. Movements are measured. Bodies seem arranged rather than expressive.

What lingered with me was not tragedy but calibration.

In this constructed world, violence moves freely through everyday interactions. Intimacy, however small, feels disruptive—almost contraband.

And because the film refuses melodrama, the inversion reveals itself slowly. The slap fades into background noise.

The kiss is what becomes dangerous.