Zoo is a notable union of a powerful story and equally strong visuals to supplement it. In terms of technique, the film follows all the rules of sound, music and camera angles to create an atmosphere of suspense, uncertainty as well as to mount action, and yet, it does not come across as pedantic. The storytelling, instead, is marked by efficiency and seamlessness. While the narrative raises potent, urgent questions about a desperate need of the hour, the approach adopted for the same is simple, making its message all the more impactful in the face of complete absence of garish devices or tools. 

The film is a comment on racism, drawing the viewer's attention to a conversation specifically around police brutality that shook the world and made it sit up the past year. However, it should be noted that it brings in personal experiences, ensuring that it is not simply a macrocosmic narrative about a white and a black man, but also of two people with their own internal, individual struggles and frustrations. Further, the manner of treatment of this dissatisfaction offers a sharp contrast. For instance, a white character, who comes from a space of entitlement owing to his racial identity, is convinced of being allowed the opportunity to inflict violence on another with impunity, even in the face of all calmness and rationality received from the other party. 

Your dissatisfactions are perhaps then allowed to find expression in the violence and cruelty you inflict on others if you are of a certain race, lurks the subtle comment within the folds of the film; like in a zoo where we are all animals, waiting to give in to our bestial sides under the right circumstances. Or worse, since the existing hierarchy is engineered to dismiss the marginalized further to a realm defined by the absolute disregard for their life. 

Though the technique and visual approach of the film has already been appreciated, it is important to mention the same again. The film deliberately drops visual cues regarding what is to come. For instance, it is a beautifully ominous shot of our protagonist peering into a store while metal rods make their presence felt against a glass window, making the scene suggestive of incarceration, a prison. It is precisely after this moment that the tone of the film changes. The plot moves from personal, localised struggles of debauchery and petty thefts to a thematic concern that would come to raise potent questions about systemic racism and oppression. It is especially important to invoke this particular visual image at this juncture because it further asserts the film's title - the reality of a world where a black man is born within the cage a festering society has already chosen for him. 

Additionally, there is an emphasis on the fierceness of youth which is allowed to you depending on your racial identity. The body language of a white man before a potential figure of authority offers a disturbing juxtaposition with that of a black man. 

Within the body of the film rest several significant comments while it continues to maintain its crispness throughout. There is a portrayal of how mindless violence often leads to a cycle of hatred, an action-reaction equation, a cause and effect. One attack on the oppressed can sometimes lead to a retaliation the oppressor did not expect. The film does not take sides regarding this reaction, it only presents it to the viewer in an objective manner. 

What is especially notable about the final product is that it manages to bring in all of these concerns (and more) to encourage a pertinent discussion on the reality of existence determined by your racial identity. The same is achieved organically, without stumbling or using cliches or sentimentalism as crutches. It is indeed in this confident assertion of its thoughts, the consequent clarity of the message and the eventual realisation of these intentions that the success of the film lies.

Zoo | Short Film of the Day

Taking the viewer into the life of Mamadou K, the documentary maps his experiences and daily lived reality as an illegal immigrant in France. Having escaped a fate of violence following the murder of his father and brother, he seeks refuge and safety in the European country. The film is an insightful engagement with what it truly means to flee your homeland after finding yourself in mortal peril, and try to carve yourself a reality in a new, potentially unwelcoming land, where your mere existence is outside the ambit of legality. The subject in itself is a complex one, requiring an intelligent handling of its several nuances, to allow the narrative to be a well-balanced product. The film is a sincere, dedicated attempt to achieve the same, and succeeds in presenting to the viewer the story of Mamadou which is plagued by the memory of a family left behind, a sense of longing and separation, and a suggestion of the cost he may have had truly had to pay to save his life. In an exile where streets are lined with fake souvenirs of capitalism, where it takes the loss of friends and loved ones, along with an absolutely uncertain fate, to carry on living an unperturbed existence, even if fleetingly, the documentary conjures the fragility of an experience that is marked by an elemental disconcertment and the futility of human effort.

Djao - After The Road | Short Film Nominee

The image of two boys jumping off abandoned train parts and spotting a fox in wilderness are the first few visuals of the film. They are essential to mention for they set the premise of the narrative's thematic concerns - innocence juxtaposed against the uncontrolled, often violently indifferent and unconcerned, forces of nature. The first few moments are also sufficient to put the viewer on edge despite the seemingly harmless atmosphere the story has constructed so far - two boys playing in the fields with not a care in the world. It is important to call it 'seeming', for therein lurks an unshakable sense of unease, one the viewer is sure will culminate into something irrevocable. The course of events the narrative comes to follow, even though the discomfort has led the viewer to prepare for them, makes you hope for a respite, perhaps even an unexpected change that would set everything right, but will it ever arrive? It is in this effortless straddling that the film executes between the untouched, unadulterated innocence of childhood, and the harsh reality of a world it exists in, that the true success of Fauve lies

Fauve | Short Film of the Day

‘Nexus’ presents an interesting way of approaching travel and the relationships that travelers often form with their place of stay. Two siblings, Alex and Lili, arrive in a city far away from home for a couple of days, and immediately fall in love with the apartment they are renting. 

Through the conversations between the two, we get a glimpse into their lives - from Lili’s work problems to emotional outbursts and mood swings that plague Alex. However, the discovery of some photographs of a past traveler, along with a locked box, alters the course of the narrative. Alex finds himself consumed with figuring out a way to unlock it, the reality even bleeding into his dreams. 

There is a suggestion of thrill and something eerie within the narrative, to eventually present a story about traveling and the many ways it can affect someone, especially if they find themselves entrapped by unpleasant elements in their day-to-day life, but with an approach and perspective you would not expect. In the process, the story also offers a metaphorical journey that the characters undertake within, to finally arrive at a lighter, more positive space, away from the burdens they had been carrying so far.

Nexus | Short Film of the Day

The short film is an attempt to explore our relationship with childhood trauma and the manner in which it can continue to affect our decisions, personality and who we choose to be even decades later. The same is portrayed by giving us a thirty-year-old protagonist, Oliver who refuses to reconcile differences with his mother. 

When he was a child, she had abandoned him only to return to his life two decades later and strive to reconstruct the broken bridges that might lead her back to him someday. However, despite all her apologies, guilt and a desire to work towards undoing her wrong, Oliver is unrelenting. 

The film suggests that this could be a form of self-preservation from getting hurt again, but one that is detrimental to Oliver's mental peace and emotional well-being. It also wants to conjure the manner in which the protagonist is still trapped in his childhood in multiple ways, further indicating the development of Peter Pan syndrome with his impatience, manner of dressing and dietary preferences. On the whole, And if I Could Fly is a sincere attempt by a young team to give the viewer a glimpse into dysfunctional familial relationships and the toxicity and emotional trauma they might usher in with them.

And if I Could Fly | Short Film Nominee

Deliberately devoid of any dialogue, the film conjures a world of mystery within its silences. The setting is of a nondescript strip of nature where a woman stumbles across a red dress hanging from a tree. Immediately drawn to it, she soon finds herself experiencing a type of wilderness she could not have anticipated. 

A fantasy realm marked by a woman in a red attire coupled with the imagery of a wolf, the call of the wild, and the howls that draw her deeper; a mysterious magical wardrobe that leads her to a room - all of these visuals together constitute a space of fairy tales and fantasy, and the many secrets they harbor within. Shot primarily in the outdoors, the film further presents a warmth of visuals in its grammar while portraying its sole character with only nature as her companion. 

Additionally, the film is a result of the fulfillment of specific requirements, shot on a single Super 8 cartridge, further enhanced with only in-camera edits. All of these together allow it to be a technical triumph, even if leaving the door open for more similar engagements with the characters and spaces conjured for the viewer in the existing project.

La Robe Rouge | Short Film Nominee

Anna and John were once lovers. However, the two artists, a dancer, and a writer, respectively, parted ways long ago when they felt the relationship had run its course. 

On the day the film opens, they are meeting again after all this time, to not only reflect on their failures and unfulfilled dreams, but also on the nature of time, and its inexorable, eternal movement forward. Alongside it, there's a discussion around the nature of their relationship that unfolds as well. The former lovers philosophize, ponder and somewhere along the way, find a moment of synchronized union amidst it all. 

The final result of the narrative is a sincere, dedicated endeavor, that portrays all of this for the viewer in a quiet, mellow manner. The performances remain notable aspects of the film.

The Pause of Time | Short Film Nominee

The film is brief, crisp and to the point, or so it would deliberately lead you to believe. It takes you to a situation of high tension, guiding you in a specific direction, only to undercut the sentiment with the truth which is far from what you may have been convinced of so far. The hour is late and the setting is of an intimate encounter between two women. However, before you can begin to ascertain the true nature of this mysterious meeting, or the whys and the hows preceding it, little bits of information start making their presence felt gradually, but sporadically. There is further the attempt to invoke a philosophical engagement with the notions of fear and how it gets tied with existence. The same is achieved by surreal images, sudden and smooth, but definitive in the manner in which they mark their flight from reality. Essentially, what the narrative aims to achieve is a moment in time, a specific situation. However, the presence of two characters further ensure two contrasting ways of understanding it. The comprehension of this unpredictable premise truly lies in the film's conclusion.

One to One | Short Film Nominee

The film documents a single moment in a woman's life. However, as it interacts with the various elements that constitute this moment, a story far deeper and more disturbing than what you would have assumed at first glance, begins to unfold. The protagonist shares her experience of being fortunate enough to follow sports as well as acting, the two activities that she truly enjoys. Despite the opportunity to be able to do so, she still mentions an emotional void she is unable to overcome. The rest of the narrative thus becomes about the reasons behind the despair she battles, all the while keeping itself confined to the single conversation. In the process, it further invokes ideas of loss and death, and the grief that gets left behind in their wake. It is then the manner in which this grief is handled that determines crucial decisions as well as the course of a person's life, suggests the narrative. While you preoccupy yourself with the film's treatment of these underpinnings, the story reaches its crescendo, giving way to a disorienting climax and disconcerting conclusion. Though the final product could have gained from a longer engagement with its themes and subject matter, it exhibits devotion to storytelling.

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