Shorts Program 3 (Various Directors, 2010): Various Countries

Reviewed by Mathew Roscoe, at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

The festival has offered up a stunning array of short films from an impressive variety of countries, and in this third entry of the international shorts programs, I have seen some gems that have inspired and entranced me more with their 10-20 minute running times than most features have ever dreamed of. Like my review of the animation program, I am going to focus only what I considered to be the best of the best, the ones that truly stood out. In this case, however, the choices will be much more difficult, as I don’t recall a single poor or even mediocre short amongst this incredible collection.

The first short of the night, the Israelian/French “Lost Paradise” by Oded Binnun, was perhaps the simplest of the roster, and yet it was profoundly honest and intimate with its message. The entire short centers on two people: a Middle Eastern couple, and takes place in just one location: a one-star hotel room. The pair spends the night in each other’s arms, tenderly making love. Completely nude and safely isolated from society, the couple feels peaceful and pure. The filthy hotel room becomes a Garden of Eden, and the lovers are its Adam and Eve. However, the innocence and euphoria is broken when it is revealed that this love is a forbidden, secret one and the two are victims of a prudish, oppressive society where the women cover their ‘shameful’ faces and bodies with cloth. Intimately shot and naturalistically acted, it is straight and to the point, but paints a moving portrait of man’s lingering desire to embrace their primal lust.

Another one of my favorites was the Swedish “Good Advice”, by Andreas Tibblin. It is the down-to-earth tale of a ten year old boy who decides to run away from home, but before doing so, he records a series of cassette tapes containing advice for his unborn brother. The advice is riddled with humorous child observations, such as “stay way from girls, they always want to play house with you” and “be good at sports or dad will hate you”. With every tidbit of misunderstanding due to childish innocence, there are also some surprisingly deep insights he has that most of us have had as children, such as “why do children make their parents bicker so much?” Overall, the film paints a very relatable portrait of an awkward young boy who feels unloved by his parents. With one of the more impressive child actor performances I have seen, it is sweet, funny, and human. Not to mention it has one of the best last-minute, turnaround plot twists I have ever seen.

My favorite of all, however, had to be the UK short by Oliver Refson: “The Hardest Part”. The extremely British short revolved around an aging actor whose career has drastically declined since he famously played a butler character on some old British sitcom. He has thoroughly prepared the monologue for a role he hopes to get in an upcoming blockbuster franchise film, one that will surely give him his long overdue comeback as an actor. However, the audition process does not go as he had anticipated, and hilarity ensues. In its 13 minutes, this film manages to pull of a well-structured 3 act narrative, with a climax and resolution that is so satisfying we forget that we’ve only known this character for a few minutes, as the audience’s bond with him has the strength of that of most feature film characters, who have over an hour to make us care about him or her. It’s both an avalanche of top-notch British humor and a well-written story, with a very unique, layered lead performance that I wish I could have seen more of.

In terms of production values, all of these shorts have high quality cinematography and editing. Great achievements in both style and substance, it’s an absolute shame that international film festivals are one of the only ways movies like this can be seen, as they are an absolute treat to watch.