A review of four short films about choices, life, death, and the hope of a better tomorrow.
Par Le Sang (By Blood)
Directors: Jonathan Delerue & Guillaume Enard Language: French
Our mortality is what some believe defines us as a species, our singular knowledge that it is inevitable hopefully guiding our actions while alive. Such is the message at the heart of Par Le Sang, a stirring French short film about a medieval landowner named Mort-Lieu (Pascal Greggory), now old and sickly, who must come to terms with his past when a mounted figure in a dark, hooded mask stands on a crest overlooking his castle. Is it a messenger of Death sent to collect the old soul, or something else entirely?
Richly-authentic and deeply true to its time, the film has a Shakespearean vibe about it with both its delicious dialogue and themes of death and accord. Greggory carries the film with his tortured performance, living in the shadow of a ruthless, violent past, his only son (Jonas Bloquet) struggling to defend him while also bearing wounds of his own.
Shot on location and thick with atmosphere and a rousing score, this feels almost like a trailer for an upcoming epic film, even as it majestically tells and concludes its story with some punch of its own. Well-directed and impressively performed, this 18-minute short is a big, bold, and emotive film experience.
2nd Class
Director: Jimmy Olsson Language: Swedish
As much as we seem every day a more global people, rich with diversity, there are always those who define themselves as superior, unwilling to find commonality but rather fueled by violent hatred. Race has long been the subject of many harrowing films, and its terrifying message continues in this award-winning short about a young woman named Charlotte (Hannah Alem-Davidson) who starts her job as an elementary school teacher, feeling greatly rewarded by their curiosity and ambition. One night on the streets, she inadvertently comes upon a white-supremacist rally and is attacked by a neo-Nazi (played by director Olsson), ending up severely injured and admitted to the hospital. When she’s finally able to returns to class, her students begin work on a family tree and she makes a startling discovery … and then takes to teaching a valuable lesson.
While there is a jarring and absolutely necessary moment of physical violence, 2nd Class isn’t a film of revenge per se but rather of tolerance and the opportunity to make change when one can with those that matter most. It’s a broad message with easily-defined players but it’s no less impactful with a remarkable demonstration of how the right words and actions can ignite a new idea in one that is already under terrible influence.
It’s no small feat that Olsson builds his story on the power of thought instead of force, especially since all too often in mainstream movies it is exactly opposite that tends to dominate the theater experience. Fighting seems to be the answer to anything and everything and it’s genuinely refreshing to see a filmmaker abandon that theme for something truly more profound and ultimately lasting. This is a message we all should learn.
The Hangman
Director: Zwelethu Radebe Language: Zulu
Set in 1989 near the end of Apartheid, a prison guard named Khetha Mdlethse (Thato Dhladla) works in the Gallows Pretoria where condemned prisoners face capital punishment. It is a brutal, hateful ward of misery and fury where guards routinely savage inmates. Khetha is haunted by a distant memory though, when he was a child and his father, in panic, left home to search for this wife, whom he believed had met with trouble. He never came back, the truth of his disappearance kept from Khetha by his mother, leaving him to forever question his father’s intentions. However, when he finds that one of the new prisoners is in fact his father, he then begins a hostile interrogation until one day, he learns the truth and is faced with an emotional choice.
What works in our favor is the harrowing reality of these turbulent years, director Radebe letting the story be about the characters rather than the history. This is about a young man coming to terms with a misrepresented past, faced with years of anger and confusion that are suddenly thrust into new light. It changes everything he thinks he knows and it allows him a chance to either search for forgiveness or let the truth live in the shadows.
It’s an unbearable burden Khetha rests upon his shoulders, and yet what makes Radebe’s story so moving is that we sense the greater burden on his parents, they living with a lie meant to protect their son, ultimately dooming them all. Quiet and introspective, The Hangman captures well the bleak and violent halls of the infamous prison system that has hardened Khetha, even as deep within himself lies the innocence of his youth swirling in question. There are no easy answers.
ASIA A
Director: Andrew Reid Language: English
Opening in a hospital, Marquise (London Brown) lies on his back as a doctor administers the ASIA test, where a pin is pressed to the skin and the patient must decide if it is the sharp or dull end. When it’s over, the chart reads ASIA A, marking Marquise a paraplegic. He’s a basketball star but now he’s faced with a new future where he might be in a wheelchair. Now he just needs to accept the truth and redefine who he is and what he’s worth. If he can.
Lying in the bed next to him is Noah (Pruitt Taylor Vince), a man with no legs who is bald-faced in both his encouragement and brutal assessment of his rommie’s new dilemma. One of the biggest hurdles for Marquise is his girlfriend Camilla (Paulina Bugembe), who he won’t let visit, afraid she will think less of him. But there’s more to it than that, the words she said before his accident.
Led by a convincing performance from Brown, this is not a sentimental film designed to push emotional buttons but rather a story of choices, even as we feel for Marquise and his plight. ASIA A is all about the ability to feel or not, the metaphor of the pin test the inspiration for whatever Marquise must do in the days he has left. It’s a mantra we are all meant to embrace.