Tag: Drama Short Film Review

Oliver Ward’s Aroma is a 10-minute short set in a modern North London cafe but has the flavour of post-war European cinema (with the barest hint of Fleabag). A man—a comically exacting one where his order is concerned—waits for his date to arrive, a young couple plays scrabble while discussing sexual possibilities, and a tired… Continue reading Aroma: An Everyday Cafe Comedy-Drama

Jonathan Shaw’s Trouble, an Irish Civil War drama through the eyes of a bereaved family, is brimming with an oppressive air that can be hard to sit with. With their father still in an unburied coffin and the brother only recently returned from being a prisoner of war, three siblings reckon with the new, uneasy… Continue reading Trouble: Faces in the Crowd of a Century-Old Story

A morbidly comical drama about two young women with dreams in the time of plague and war, Dimitri Nasennik’s The Purpose lets its heroines be two sides of the same coin of ambition held up in limbo. Its star is Kristel (Natalia Shevchenko), a less lethal take on Killing Eve’s Villanelle. The sociopathy is casual,… Continue reading The Purpose: Failing Youth and Crises All Around in Drama on Ambition

Stefan Fairlamb and Ashley Tabatabai’s Hamdardi, a retrospective look at Trump’s Muslim ban seven years ago, splits the narrative between an immigration officer and two stranded Iranian siblings in the eye of the storm—a US airport. At twenty-seven minutes, the film takes its time to map out its similarities to and differences from 2004’s The… Continue reading Hamdardi: Recognition and Compassion Under the State’s Nose

Sarab Sahni’s My Miracle Boy (writing credits shared between Caroline Gordon Elliott, Alam Virk, and Sahni) contains the sparks of something better than itself, its elusive glint catching the eye as if only to give chase. The story of a woman terrified to lose her only child, and so, like Rapunzel and every predecessor before… Continue reading My Miracle Boy: Psychological Horror and Coming of Age in One

Harvey Kadijk’s 10-minute Lost delves into long-term love and grief through its characters Dalo and Sarah, introducing them on the brink of a whole new life. In retrospect, it is surprisingly more exuberant than you would expect.  This is due entirely to a single shot but the abruptness and sheer unbounded joy in it leave… Continue reading Lost: The Pain and Pleasure of Old Love

David A. Flores’s 15-minute Likeness depicts a woman’s search for her missing mother using AI, combining mystery with interiorised drama that looks and feels more novel than it should. Oddly (or perhaps fittingly), the film seems to mirror its own subject in terms of uncanniness. The AI version of Kaitlyn’s mom, Fiona, is shockingly human… Continue reading Likeness: Mystery, Grief and Multiple Existential Crises

Indigo Parer’s Imperium examines the multifaceted expression of being a family bound by bitterness, resentment, and trauma going back generations. Running to twenty minutes, the film unravels its subjects on two distinct threads that both belie the complexity of familial coexistence and illuminate the gendered expression of festering tensions. Julio (Sal Galofaro) and Angela (Francesca… Continue reading Imperium: Living with a Failed Core

Grief and death intermingle into a bitter mix in Kyung Sok Kim’s Monét, a 22-minute film about two best friends, one dead and the other, to her bitter regret, not. Left alone and alive with the weight of survivor’s guilt crushing her, the protagonist Sarai—played by screenwriter Tdjiri Yakini—must contend with the accusation of being… Continue reading Monét: Impermeable Friendships and Their Fatal Interruptions