Crafting short stories - 2022 Live Action shorts

There's a certain art to crafting a short story. To many people, short stories are just short novels, which really isn't the case, as it often takes a different frame of mind and a whole lot of restraint to recognize that what you have isn't really novel length and is best delivered in a form that will give just enough of a story for the reader/viewer to come away with the message that you'd like to deliver (or simply the tale you'd like to tell) and not be subsumed in the world that you've created. They're glimpses; snippets; insights. The writers and directors of this year's submissions took a variety of angles toward that goal and, for the most part, produced some excellent films that embodied the concept.

Ivalu: This is a story told half in the dreamworld of intelligent ravens and memories and half in the brutal reality of a missing sibling and a dire situation at home. It's based on the graphic novel of the same name by Morten Dürr and you can tell that directors Anders Walter and Pipaluk K. Jørgenson wanted to stick to Dürr's visual style, as they create several long, focusing shots on key elements in the story: the expression on a face, the seeming intelligence in the blank eyes of a bird, and so on. This is very much a comic, panel-by-panel approach and it does a good job of sustaining a narrative without dialogue. They also decided to layer in a lot of narrative dialogue by Pipaluk, the younger sister of the namesake of the film who is desperate to find her older sibling and bring her home, half out of concern and half out of Pipaluk's own fear of the menace that exists at home. It's a solid story but, like the perhaps unneeded dialogue, I think it went too far into the reality of the situation when the implications were already plain as sunlight on a glacier from the very beginning. If the intent was to show Pipaluk's transition out of her escapist fantasy that she used to try to shield herself from what was happening, then that was accomplished. It just felt to me like they had taken an excellent indirect approach and then abandoned that in the third act to just present the problem that had caused both sisters so much anguish. It feels like the message might have been stronger without simply portraying the horrific reality. That said, it was still wonderfully shot, with great visuals of the culture and scenery in Greenland and is well worth the watch.

Night Ride (Nattrikken): This entry was an unusual story of a little person who inadvertently steals a local tram somewhere in Norway and then has to figure out how to deal with unruly passengers and their harassment of a trans person. It's a great story about the continued persecution of many among us for their size or their identity or anything that the majority deems "not normal." In some ways, this was the bluntest of presentations of the five films, since it didn't have any of the stylistic approaches of the rest but simply presented its story, including spending a fair amount of time showing Ebba (Sigrid Kandal Husjord) trying to figure out how to pilot her stolen tram. Of course, that's part and parcel of the whole story, in which she's dropped into multiple uncertain situations and has to find a way out of or through them. In that way, it paralleled "real life" moreso than the rest and didn't bother to try to reach for any deeper a moral message than what was displayed by the actions of its characters. It's the second year in a row that a little person was the star of one of the live action shorts and it's nice to see that there are continued opportunities for those who don't fit the standard billing, as it were. I wouldn't rank it as one of my favorites of this set, but it was solid.

Le pupille: In utter contrast was this film that was almost overloaded with a production design and approach that was vastly beyond any of the rest of the entries (and was by far the longest presentation, as well), including musical interludes, filming at different speeds, and attempts at absurdist humor both visual and dialogue-driven. This was the one entry where you might think that the writers needed a stronger editor because it was teetering on the edge of trying to cram a novel into a short story and not succeeding at either. We're given more detail than is really needed about the situation of these girls in a Catholic orphanage, including one getting to go to her family for the holidays while the rest are left behind, the presence of a man posing as a nun inside the orphanage while his desperate girlfriend prays for his return, and an inclusion of the chimney sweeps at said orphanage, first as background scenery and then as key figures in the conclusion. It all felt a bit disorganized and wasn't helped by my recoiling from the ardent hypocrisy of the Church and its instruments of instruction (aka nuns.) While it did have one of the most amusing scenes of the night, as the girls are forced to pose in an elaborate nativity scene while the local townsfolk come to plead for the prayers of the orphans, it all felt a bit too much and too long and, again, like it missed the point of a short story. Unfortunately, given its elaborate presentation, I have a feeling it will end up being the one to take the statuette home.

The Red Suitcase: But then we came across one of my favorites of the evening in a story about a teenaged Iranian girl in the Luxembourg airport, desperately trying to avoid the moment where she meets up with her arranged husband, a much older man who has paid her family for her. This was an excellent depiction of the most traumatic half hour of this girl's life and which she, Ariane (Nawelle Ewad), brilliantly portrays without speaking a single word throughout. All of the dialogue is from other characters asking her questions that she can't understand and her intended husband asking her father questions on the phone that he can't answer, as he's shipped his daughter off like a package to be picked up. Central to the story is her old, red suitcase that she continues to clutch at every opportunity, as it contains the elements of the life that she'd like to live and which she knows will be denied to her if she can't escape from the man that has bought her. This period of constant tension is occasionally broken by the unanswered texts from her father, at first inquisitive about her location and then increasingly frantic at her silence and unwillingness to complete the business deal that he has made. It's a story of isolation, betrayal, abominable traditions, and determination. It spotlights a brief time of crisis but tells a lifetime of meaning. This is a proper short story and, thus, a proper short film.

An Irish Goodbye: How appropriate that in a year where a darkly comic film about an Irish community is one of the favorites for Best Picture (The Banshees of Inisherin), an absurdly but also darkly funny Irish short film about two brothers dealing with the passing of their mother is in the running for its own trophy. This was easily the funniest film of the evening with Father O'Shea (Paddy Jenkins) stealing most of the scenes that he's in ("Does she feel... still warm to ye?") But Turlough (Seamus O'Hara) and Lorcan (James Martin) also have plenty of moments of their own as they try to come to terms with each other while both still grieving for their lost mum. It was especially heartening to see Martin, who has Down syndrome, essentially play it straight as someone afflicted with the same condition who, contrary to everyone else's expectations, is still fully capable of determining the direction of his own life but really wants to pursue that life alongside his older brother. This is a much bigger tale which alludes to a lot of the history that makes up the characters in front of us, but only tells us about what's happening right now. That's a smart writer, director, and editor. It's a great story with a quite predictable end, but which still ends up being very satisfying.

If there's any justice in the world, Banshees will win Best Picture and Goodbye would win Best Live Action Short but I have my doubts. I could also make a serious case for Suitcase as the best film of the night, as it embodied the art form and was gripping from beginning to end. Tomorrow night we wrap up with Animation.