Zabaldu Naraé’s Daring Rewrite of the Female Experience

What if the world flipped on its axis not with fire or flood—but with a woman’s silent snap? In Switched Parallel World, director Zabaldu Naraé doesn’t just twist the familiar; she breaks it open like a ripe pomegranate, seeds of discomfort and truth spilling out in bold, defiant strokes.

This short film is a feminist fever dream, a speculative slap in the face of patriarchy with a poetic afterburn. Ellen, caught in the tedium of domestic normalcy, flicks her fingers—and the cosmos listens. Suddenly, men menstruate. Men give birth. And yet—can they really handle it? Can those historically armored in gendered privilege survive the invisible battles women fight every single day?

Naraé dares to ask these questions, not with a bullhorn, but with razor-edged nuance. The writing is sharp, laced with irony and empathy. The pacing moves like a heartbeat—steady, quickening, skipping, and then dropping into silence when you least expect it. This isn't just storytelling; it's sleight-of-hand social critique dressed as dystopian whimsy.

Ellen’s performance is a quiet good in internal rebellion, delivered with a glare that says more than monologues ever could. The editing, crisp and purposeful, allows the narrative to oscillate between satire and sincerity without losing balance. And though Naraé’s directorial voice has grown in confidence since previous works, her signature is still unmistakable: stark truths hidden behind shadowplay, emotion curled up in black-and-white frames.

Yet, not all flips are flawless. The cinematography, while earnest, sometimes falls short of the surrealism it strives for—more utilitarian than visionary. And while the home interiors serve the script’s symbolism, they often feel staged, like IKEA sets waiting for real lives to inhabit them. The sound design, too, misses moments to echo the visceral weight of the themes. In a film so centered on bodily experience, sonic intimacy would have elevated the discomfort to art.

Zabaldu Naraé, the Basque artist who leapt from fabric to frame, crafts this universe with a seamstress’s precision and a rebel’s heart.