Don't Cry - Review

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Don’t Cry is a 9-minute computer-animated short film by Palestinian director and animator Hisham Zreiq. The film is about a Palestinian man, a Palestinian girl, and an Israeli Woman, all meeting in a beautiful and peaceful place by a pond, the water filled with wild plants and birds.

The little girl is sitting on the dock waiting as the man arrives by boat, confused to see the girl. Later, a second boat arrives with the Israeli woman on it. The woman seems to be deeply disturbed to see the man. The man doesn’t want to speak to the woman, the woman refuses to speak to the man, and the little girl, in the middle, tries to reconcile the two.

The film speaks loudly about the ongoing Palestinian/Israeli conflict. A plot twist towards the end of the film shows how the three characters were in fact directly involved in two attacks: an Israeli attack on a Palestinian school, and one Palestinian attack on an Israeli bus.

The 5-minute short is of course a simplification of the dynamics of the conflict, which works thanks to the presence of the child. The conflict is almost filtered through the eyes of the little girl. As a matter of fact, for the victims implicated in the bloody conflict, it doesn’t matter who started what and who did what to whom. All that matters is that, if anger and vengeance don’t serve any purpose once we are all dead, why should they have a place while we’re still alive?

The film perfectly encapsulates the concept of an eye for an eye, and how the conflict as we see it today — especially in the wake of one of Hamas attacks on Isreal — is really a snowball effect, a desire for a never-ending retaliation. People and countries can keep reacting to violence with more violence, and peace will be achieved only once everyone is dead. “Don’t cry. Now, we’re all dead” says the little girl, almost as if finding solace in the eternal state where nothing can harm her anymore.

The animation is cold and mechanic, but the poignant plot and the intense voice-over work make up for it. The story is simple, yet extremely effective. The characters all have a fundamental role in this parallel world made of sadness and grief.

A film like this is now as important as ever, as it highlights how, in the conflict, the most vulnerable groups of people are the ones who suffer the most.

A moving short that definitely leaves you with a ton of questions and doubts about how much we really know about each country, after all.

Two Point O is a short film written by Aaron Joshua, who also stars in it and co-produces and co-directs it with David Anderson.

The film is about achieving an improved version of ourselves, a 2.0 version of Aaron Joshua’s self through the prospect of getting sober. Joshua is in fact portraying himself as trying to overcome his own addictions.

The narrating voice is reading a poem, illustrated by Anderson’s alternated images of addicts and nature. At times ingenue, Joshua’s voice is filled with hope, friendship, and desire for a brighter future. By giving up on despair for a “joyful expression”, Joshua compares getting sober to “grow and mature” and finally being “the one wearing the crown”. 

Joshua’s words are labile and scattered. It’s hard to follow the poetry flow because of its continued interruption and sound overlapping. At the same time, Anderson’s camera is casual, shaky, and unruly, and the editing is a bit rough.

The final production fails to convey the real and profound struggle of the main character and ends up keeping all images and metaphors on a superficial level.

All in all, an important and deep message, inattentively wrapped in a vague package.

Call of The City is a 13-minute thriller film written, directed, and produced by Owen Thomas Meinert.

Through a title card, the director clarifies at the very beginning that the film is only an excerpt from a feature-length script.

The story takes place in one room and shows two characters — a man and a woman — sitting on a bed and having a dialogue. We don’t know what happens before this scene, but the camera shows pretty soon some blood stains on the man’s shirt. However, the woman doesn’t seem to be bothered by them and is rather amused by the man, thinking he’s an unusual, introverted, and rather calm guy.

The suspenseful music and dark coloring of the film suggest that something is going to happen very soon to either one of the two characters.

The actress is good in her role, however, the overall energy of the film is very low. The action scene is poorly shot, there is no tension built up, no suspense, and no fighting-for-they-lives situation. The cinematography is average, the ending shot is crooked and it doesn’t seem to be made on purpose.

The film is surely interesting as we’re left wondering what kind of life led the man to become this way, and we’d love to know what would happen to him next.

An intriguing short thriller that could benefit from a more experienced crew.

Twin Cities Pride 2020 is a short documentary directed by David Anderson. The film explores the city of Minneapolis after the announcement that the Twin Cities Pride was canceled in 2020 due to the surge of the pandemic.

Anderson’s handheld camera is following a man walking around the LGBT destinations in Minneapolis, only to find them closed and empty. The shots are accompanied by evocative, quite sentimental music, which suits the film very well. 

The editing is good, with shots of the city subtly alternating with close-ups of the man, as well as archive photos of what we can assume were Minneapolis’ past prides. So now, instead of the colorful and joyous images of the Pride, the actual reality is grey, the venues are closed and the city is empty.

And the sounds of the street, alternating with the score of the film, help the director to achieve a duality. The duality between the Twin Cities Pride happening in 2020, and the actual reality of the man’s lives.

But apart from the suggestive shots of the man walking in the city, nothing more is revealed throughout the film. There isn’t a true arc in this film, which might leave the audience a bit puzzled by the exact message of the director.

However, the director succeeds in making us feel the desolation of the LGBT community. Which leaves us to think: without events like the Pride, what happens to the LGBT community in one of the most LGBT-friendly states in the Midwest?

Yes, Darling! is a short film written and directed by Stanislav Shelestov and produced by Alexandra Tomilina. The film stars Vladimir Galimov as Gosha, a mild-mannered and average-looking photographer, and Olga Listratova as Galya, his beautiful and intimidating wife.

One evening, after a series of verbal abuses, Gosha gathers all of his strength and finally decides to end his toxic marriage.

After a series of unfortunate accidents, Gosha's wife turns out dead, much to his dismay. Gosha is initially reluctant to conceal the accidental death, but when a now-dead Galya ridicules and criticizes his every action, he decides that his only chance not to end up in prison is to cover up what looks like a cold-blooded murder.

A phone call with Gosha’s mother glues the pieces of the film together. In a flashback, we see that everything that happened so far was a creation of Gosha’s deluded and twisted mind and that, in reality, the couple had been divorced for two days, with Galya being the one to actually end the relationship.

The split narrative is a great way of showing the events from the eyes of the killer, which is what makes this psychological film so scary. What looks to us like a brutal murder might be, from the murderer’s perspective, a mere “accident”, something that happened in spite of him and not because of him.

It's distressing how the film shows that monsters can really present themselves as normal and average people, on the outside as well as on the inside of their minds — so much so that even the perpetrator can’t see himself as a criminal — and only reveal their true selves to just one person.

A brilliantly directed and well-acted short film — thought-provoking enough — that will get the audience glued to the screen for 25 minutes.