Silence

COVID-19 pandemic lockdown worldwide has resulted in a sharp increase in domestic violence. For most of us our home is our temple and safe haven, but for some women it has turned into a prison. The main idea of the video is based on a wordplay — we replaced just one letter and transformed the meaning of our message. In Russian «нИ души» means «not a soul around / there is no one around». And «нЕ души» means «don’t strangle». These phrases differ from each other just by one letter and are pronounced exactly the same. In English subtitles we used the following equivalents — «silence» and «no violence» to express the idea. The video message was created for SILSILA — a noncommercial project and a free app working as a panic button. If you have become a victim of domestic abuse — just push the button and cry for help. Your geolocation will be sent to your 10 closest people. The video went viral. Due to large amounts of feedbacks, reposts of opinion leaders, likes and comments: in the first 24 hours over 300,000 people saw it. The most frightening virus is violence. And we can stop it together.