• Home
  • About Us
  • Submit Article
  • Contact Us
  • Try Our AI Assistant For Filmmakers
Indie Shorts Mag
  • Home
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Film Festival News
    • Short Film News
  • Reviews
    • Short Film
    • Documentary
    • Web Series
  • Hall of Fame
  • Short Film Festival – 2023Submissions Open
  • Tutorials
    • Pre-Production
    • Post-Production
  • Short Film TVLive
  • Submit Short Film
    • Submit Short Film for Review
    • Submit Web Series for Review
No Result
View All Result
Indie Shorts Mag
  • Home
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Film Festival News
    • Short Film News
  • Reviews
    • Short Film
    • Documentary
    • Web Series
  • Hall of Fame
  • Short Film Festival – 2023Submissions Open
  • Tutorials
    • Pre-Production
    • Post-Production
  • Short Film TVLive
  • Submit Short Film
    • Submit Short Film for Review
    • Submit Web Series for Review
No Result
View All Result
Indie Shorts Mag
No Result
View All Result

Distressed: A Meditation On Loss And Grief

Indie Shorts Mag Team by Indie Shorts Mag Team
30 Nov 2020
in Reviews
0
Distressed - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag

A film focusing on a man’s lone journey of processing the grief of losing his little daughter, Martin Sandin’s 15-minute Distressed understands grief, and often gets it right gut-wrenchingly well. 

But the film surprises. Despite resonant cinematography and Carl Ingemarsson Stjernlöf’s brilliant, carefully measured performance, Distressed takes a toll on its audience’s patience. 

Nathan, to whom we are first introduced in a promisingly emotive scene with his daughter, arrives at a secluded cottage — alone, dressed in funeral black, and pressing silence all around him. The iconic maroon cottage itself assumes the form of a character, both enveloping Nathan and becoming the witness to his rage. When he takes an axe to an adjacent cottage, it does not present itself as a separate entity. Instead, it is an extension of the main structure. 

Distressed - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag

In such an environment writer-director Sandin places his main character Nathan to face the enormity of his loss. However, the narrative never takes off. Fifteen minutes feel like an extended setup of a longer story which is ultimately never told. In an ironic twist for the film itself, it looks promising throughout, and therefore, captivating. It is not such a work where one shot, or the first few minutes is evidence enough of its quality. 

Takes — although initially stunning—are agonizingly long, and worse, vacuous. It takes you a while to realise it is his daughter’s death that he is mourning. It may even feel like a particularly ominous horror film, and that the girl who watches silently from the outside, or walks around inside, is a ghost. For such a simple premise, the structure is rather unnecessarily complicated. 

Distressed - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag

What truly hurts the story is that it never goes anywhere. It does not answer the questions it posits, and neither does it give its audience the necessary information to come up with their own interpretations. All that the film does is capture a painful, and more importantly, still, moment in Nathan’s story. The stillness resonates, but the complete narrative standstill makes for poor storytelling. Especially when spread over fifteen minutes. One does not stop expecting payoff from Distressed until it is too late. 

#ShortFilmReview: Distressed: Grief can become a bottomless hole punched into your chest. Click To Tweet

Watch Distressed Short Film Trailer

Distressed: A Meditation On Loss And Grief
  • Direction
  • Cinematography
  • Screenplay
  • Editing
  • Music
3.5
Tags: PrivateReviewShort Film Reviews
Previous Post

Titus & Mirabella: Return To Ye Olde Days Of Rom-Coms

Next Post

Big Touch: Connection As The Defining Human Need

Indie Shorts Mag Team

Indie Shorts Mag Team

Related Posts

Developing Agents - Short Film Review
Reviews

Developing Agents: A Layered Narrative On Aspirations & Fantasies

6th June 2023
Killing for a Living - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag
Reviews

Killing For A Living: A Hysterical Mockumentary On Assassins

2nd June 2023
Next Post
Big Touch - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag

Big Touch: Connection As The Defining Human Need

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sponsored

Advertise Here

Featured Post

Announcing Indie Shorts Mag Short Film Festival(ISMSFF) 2022

Announcing Indie Shorts Mag Short Film Festival(ISMSFF) 2022

  • Recent Reviews
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Youtube Vimeo

About Indie Shorts Mag

Indie Shorts Mag is a publishing agency that works within the ‘short film circuit’. We review short films, documentaries, music videos and web series, amongst others. We stand out amongst the short film review sites for being multi-diverse & global in our platform and reach.
Our team works tirelessly to help promote, publicize and market your short films that deserve the shout-out! Besides reviews, we host film festival news as it’s a known fact that the film festival buzz is unmissable and we ensure you aren’t left behind!
We aspire to form a niche for ourselves as the ‘short film magazine’ that remains the hub for filmmakers & their audience.

Popular Topics

  • Announcements
  • Articles
  • Crowdfunding
  • Editorial
  • Film Festival News
  • Film Festivals
  • India Edition
  • Interviews
  • Marketing
  • Marketing
  • News
  • Online Premiere
  • Post-Production
  • Pre-Production
  • Reviews
  • Short Film
  • Short Film Competition
  • Short Film News
  • Tutorials
  • Web Series

Indie Shorts Mag on Instagram

Follow Us On Instagram

  • #ShortFilmReview: Developing Agents: The path to creative genius is often self-destructive. Read our review and watch the short film. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Doodle: What if you held within your hands the power of altering your future? Read our review and watch the short film. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Killing For A Living: And, you thought your job was easy?! Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Khaos: What is awaiting us out there? Read our review and watch the short film. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Time Machine: The journey inwards… Read our review and watch the short film. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Vax: Altruism in the pharmaceutical industry is a myth. Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Intern: Would Seth make it through the interview? Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview:  A Brush Of Violence: Can the art and the artist ever be separated? 

Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Closing Time: What if you could go back in time? Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm

© 2015-2023 Indie Shorts Mag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Film Festival News
    • Short Film News
  • Reviews
    • Short Film
    • Documentary
    • Web Series
  • Hall of Fame
  • Short Film Festival – 2023
  • Tutorials
    • Pre-Production
    • Post-Production
  • Short Film TV
  • Submit Short Film
    • Submit Short Film for Review
    • Submit Web Series for Review

© 2015-2023 Indie Shorts Mag.