What remains of a kiss when the other body is absent?
Directed by Guy Hamiel and Orin Kadoori for Lampoon SALIVA, Kiss explores intimacy in the absence of physical contact, drawing on Saliva as Bodily Intelligence to examine longing, memory and the body’s response to desire
What comes to mind when I say saliva, and the images the word evokes
Orin & Guy. The first thing that comes to our mind is disgust and a sense of the non-sterile.
The starting point for the video and how the initial idea developed into the final concept
Orin & Guy. The first image that came to our minds was a man facing a mirror, having a moment of intimacy with himself. After reading Riccardo Proietti’s article, ‘Saliva as Bodily Intelligence’ which is featured in this issue, what caught us was how a kiss, or even the thought of it, raises oxytocin levels in the body, and the idea that saliva becomes an expression of closeness between partners. We decided to explore the subject through the lens of desire and distance between partners, rather than physical touch.
Where the video was shot and how the location influenced its visual language
Orin & Guy. We shot the video in Rome, where Guy was staying while his partner was away. We drew inspiration from the empty apartment, reflecting that physical emptiness to the character’s emotional state.
What guided the casting choices and what we were looking for in the people appearing in the video
Orin & Guy. For us, it’s important to create a tension between tenderness and intense feelings, which come from a vulnerable place. That’s what guided us when choosing the actors, who happened to be a real-life couple.
The literary and cinematic references that informed the work, and any direct quotations or deliberate visual references
Orin & Guy. We are both visual people, and everything we do starts with an image. For this project, we drew inspiration from films like Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express, Pedro Almodóvar’s Law of Desire, and especially Steve McQueen’s Shame. We were inspired by the siblings’ relationship, which is close, yet emotionally distant due to past wounds. In the film, the sister’s voice shuts the brother down and pushes him away, whereas in our video, the girlfriend’s voice brings up the emotions he wasn’t able to express in front of her.
The tools and technologies used to produce the video and how they influenced the creative process
Orin & Guy. Orin & Guy. We are minimalistic in the way we work, trying to create an adaptable environment. We work with natural light and a small crew, usually the two of us. This shapes how we create our visual language, with the goal of capturing a genuine and realistic atmosphere.
The visual techniques we are most interested in exploring further and what makes them effective in conveying a message or provoking an emotional response
Orin & Guy. We work with natural light because it affects both the body and mind. Lighting isn’t just a visual tool for us, it’s how we translate the raw feeling and memory of a situation to the screen. It’s an approach we hope to keep at the core of our work and continue developing.
Orin Kadoori and Guy Hamiel
Kiss was created by Orin Kadoori (director) and Guy Hamiel (cinematographer), an artistic duo working across independent film and artistic collaborations. Their practice explores identity, memory and human connection through a shared cinematic language rooted in realism. Their work focuses on silence, gesture and the nuances of human relationships, bringing image, performance and collaboration into dialogue.
