Over the Shoulder, Walking Away

A person in a worn canvas jacket carries a taped cardboard box away from camera down a service alley of wet brick, lit by a sodium-vapour fixture over a fire door and grey sky above. The camera follows from behind at shoulder height, walking, one pace slow, drifting slightly left as if avoiding a puddle. At the seventh step they glance back over the left shoulder for under a second — chin turns, eyes come round, then forward again — with NO break in stride, no slowing, no shift of the box's weight. In the follow-shot register of the Dardenne brothers. DIRTY FOREGROUND: a hanging plastic strip curtain and steam from a vent wipe across the near frame. 40mm at f/2.2, sodium light smearing into orange halation, handheld with a walker's vertical bob. NO slow motion, NO pause, NO turn-and-stop.