Relay centers on Ash, a mysterious fixer who brokers deals between would-be corporate whistleblowers and the conglomerates they could expose. Ash offers whistleblowers a way to buy their silence and return intel to former employers through analog infrastructure. The film foregrounds record players, phone calls, snail mail and a teletypewriter (TDD) tied to the Telecommunications Relay Service as untraceable communication tools. The aesthetic leans on '70s paranoia thrillers, using obsolete technology to create a ghost-in-the-machine atmosphere. Director David Mackenzie frames the technology as almost another world and filmed scenes around existing public booths at Penn Station.
Relay is not the kind of film we see much of anymore, and it's all the better for it. It's a love letter to analog, heavily featuring record players, phone calls, and snail mail - but it's not just paying lip service. It builds its central conceit on the shoulders of the '70s thrillers that thrive in paranoia, and uses a piece of bygone tech to enhance its narrative.
The film derives its name from the Telecommunications Relay Service, a publicly-funded program that relays messages from deaf callers. Ash uses a teletypewriter, or telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), to transmit anonymous, untraceable messages between his clients and their former employers. That makes him a ghost in the machine, accessing technology that director David Mackenzie likens to another world.
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