Maggie Gyllenhaal & Kristen Stewart made short films during lockdown

A new Netflix anthology sees filmmakers around the world share their perspective of life in lockdown

Netflix anthology Homemade sees filmmakers around the world share short films from isolation, including Kristen Stewart and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

While Gyllenhaal and Stewart direct projects, actors Peter Sarsgaard and Cate Blanchett are also involved in the series.

Chilean director Pablo Larrain dreamed up the anthology. It consists of “personal, moving stories that capture our shared experience of life in quarantine”. There are 17 shorts in the series, between four and 11 minutes long.

Some of the films are intimate diaries and others are works of fiction. Often witty and sentimental, the stories are heartwarming and relatable.

Kristen Stewart directs and stars in an intimate short looking at the thoughts and routines of an insomniac. Blanchett narrates a lonely bike ride, through streets of shuttered businesses and quiet streets. Gyllenhaal makes her directorial debut, starring her husband Sarsgaard. He plays a grieving man isolated in Vermont in a dystopian future where the virus has destroyed the world.

Director Paulo Sorrentino created a funny what-if story, of an improbably love affair. It sees a romance blossom between the Pope and the Queen of England, acted out by plastic dolls.