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Set in our near future, Canary refers to Canary Industries, a multinational company that wants to make sure people are living healthy.

Because that company is responsible for making sure that people living with leased organs are complying with the Conscientious Usage contract they signed. And if they aren't, well, Canary Industries reserves the right to reclaim the organ.

It's a creepy premise made creepier because of the documentary tone used by director Alejandro Adams.

We drift as voyeurs from one scene to another. A family arguing in Russian. A pregnant woman going into labour while shopping for nursery furniture. A young couple on a date. Employees at a medical clinic going about their daily business.

A nameless, silent woman — played by Carla Pauli — is the thread that connects the various people we spy on. She spies on them, too, but they never notice. She infiltrates their lives, their world.

I have a soft spot for lo-fi sci-fi like Twitch favorite Primer, or The Girl From Monday, so I am happy to see Alejandro Adams’ Canary playing this weekend at Cinequest 19. I actually had the chance to screen this some time ago, but it has taken a while to wrap my head around it. Set in a near future science fiction, Canary trails an agent (the bewitchingly ghostly Carla Pauli) of a corporation that deals in organ transplants harvested from people that aren’t using them as effectively as their clients will. Lurking around corners and doorways, she eavesrops on her targets lives until having her way with with them in a van equipped for the surprisingly bloodless deed. I watched it right after catching Hartley’s No Such Thing, which helped me negotiate it as the kind of thoughtful sci-fi I grew up with behind stacks of Ray Bradbury books.