A Swedish expat in the Philippines wonders: what’s up with people sleeping at work?

Upon moving to the Philippines, the Swedish director Samir Arabzadeh noticed something that seemed quite peculiar about everyday life in the country. Rather than feeling the need to always look busy, employees often quite openly and unabashedly slept while on the clock. In his short documentary Powernapper’s Paradise, Arabzadeh sets out to understand this practice as someone from a culture that places a premium on productivity. Collecting a series of portraits of said on-the-job sleepers, Arabzadeh collates a broad range of perspectives that swirl around a single, shared understanding – a bit of shuteye on the job is really no big deal. And, tugging harder at the roots of the phenomenon, he finds a society that seems content to move at a leisurely pace, and uninterested in being rushed into a rushing world.