Breaking the night and solitudinous privacy of New York City's unnamed inhabitants, Sky Breaking, Clouds Falling unrolls an epic image of a city on the edge. The year is 2020, in the grip of the pandemic, and a blinding police floodlight captures individuals going about their daily lives. From the vantage point of a backseat window, director Matvey Fiks points his lens towards the outside world and takes up the role of an unwelcome witness.

With an almost photographic quality, the city’s nightlife is revealed in fragments. Fiks’ treatment for the film follows in the long tradition of street photographers like Daniel Arnold, known for his off-guard shots of New Yorkers, and Bruce Gilden, whose unforgiving flash paints a bleak picture of those dwelling within the five boroughs. Just like street photography, Sky Breaking, Clouds Falling evokes an innate perverse curiosity in the lives of others.

Director Matvey Fiks took the title of the film from its soundtrack, which is a record on Mason Lindahl's debut solo album "Kissing Rosy in The Rain.” Fiks’s patrolling camera and Lindahl's acoustic guitar merge in a melancholic tune to create a poetic statement that resonates with the pandemic and its atmosphere.