My guests today are writer/directors Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh and the absolutely spectacular medium-length French-language film TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING SALIVA. 

NATALIE MUSTEATA is a writer, curator, and filmmaker. She holds a Doctorate in art history and a Masters in film from The Graduate Center, CUNY. She is the curator of several exhibitions including if I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution, Haverford College, and UNREST: Revolt against Reason.

In 2018, she produced Alexandre Singh’s richly imaginative short film The Appointment, which played in over 40 film festivals where it won several awards for “Best Short Film”, as well as co-curated the exhibition A Gothic Tale at the Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco. 

In 2024, she co-wrote, directed, and produced with Singh a medium-length French-language film TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING SALIVA, featuring Zar Amir, Luàna Bajrami, and Vicky Krieps.

ALEXANDRE SINGH is a Brooklyn based visual artist, born in Bordeaux, France, to Indian and French parents. His work is inspired by a love of imaginative storytelling. His work is represented in numerous private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; and the Centre national des arts plastiques in Paris.

In 2019, Alexandre made his debut short film, THE APPOINTMENT, which premiered at the Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco, in his solo exhibition A Gothic Tale, and then played at PÖFF Shorts, Leuven, and Bogo Shorts amongst many others.

Their mind blowing cinematic masterpiece TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING SALVIA takes place in a society where kissing is punishable by death, and people pay for things by receiving slaps to the face. And there is so much more.

Ladies and gentlemen, TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING SALIVA is about In a society where kissing is punishable by death, and people pay for things by receiving slaps to the face. Angine, an unhappy woman, shops compulsively in

a department store. There, she becomes fascinated by a playful salesgirl. Despite the prohibition of kissing, the two

become close, raising the suspicions of a jealous colleague.

There are very few films that leave me speechless and this is one of them. It is one of the most original storylines, one of the most beautiful films cinematically and so engaging you want to watch over and over again. 

The black and white visuals are so stunning, they are very portrait like. It enhances the emotion of every character and the close ups of each one makes you feel you can look into their soul. 

There is something the French can do better than any other filmmaker, and that’s make a film with such romance, even if one is forbidden to kiss. You still feel that romance in the cinematography. The French do it better and TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING SALVIA is proof we need more French cinema in our lives. 

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