Shorts

SPOILER ALERT: I usually don’t make a point of alerting readers to spoilers, but it’s pretty hard not to in writing about this film. At just 18 minutes, though, you figure out pretty quickly what’s going on. Nonetheless, fair warning.

Sailcloth (Director: Elfar Adelsteins): John Hurt stars in this wordless tale of a man who stages a “jailbreak” from his seaside retirement home, steals a sailboat, and takes control of his destiny. Icelandic-born director Adelsteins dedicated the film to the memory of his own grandfather, the circumstances of whose death I have no knowledge of, but I do suspect that like most Icelanders, the sea was an important part of his life.

Hurt has always been one of my favourite actors, and his deeply-lined face is even more expressive than usual, considering it has to do all the dramatic work here. There’s an impishness about his escape that initially had me wondering if this was just to be a boyish lark, but we soon come to know that his prank has a more grave purpose, and that this journey is to be his last. And that disappointed me, because I feel like I’ve seen too many of these sorts of stories lately, of older people “taking back” their sense of agency over their fates. I suppose the director would argue that this is about dignity, but somehow it feels like we’re being told it’s heroic for older people to take their own lives.

My discomfort with the theme doesn’t make the film any less riveting. Hurt is excellent, and the cinematography is lush, with an excellent focus on details. It certainly conveys the freedom and joy of being out in a sailboat on a sunny day. However, I do have an issue with the music, whose syrupy sentimentality is simply unnecessary. Hurt’s performance does all the work here, and doesn’t need boosting of any kind. For me the most affecting scene is when, enjoying the sea and the sun, he looks out toward the open sea and has to choose: will I steer toward the horizon or let the horizon come to me? As in many short films, the metaphorical weight can be crushing, but Hurt never overplays things.

Sailcloth was shortlisted for an Oscar® in the category of live-action short, but in the end did not make the final list of five nominees. Nevertheless, I hope that more people will have the chance to see Hurt’s performance. And despite my reservations, I look forward to seeing the development of Elfar Adelsteins as a filmmaker. This is only his second short film, and reading about his work with other Icelandic filmmakers like Valdís Óskarsdóttir and Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, I am sure he has a bright future.

Official Facebook page of the film

Tagged as: aging

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The Palace (Director: Anthony Maras): Perhaps it’s fitting that so soon after hosting the first Shorts That Are Not Pants screening, I was asked to review a batch of shorts in contention for this year’s Oscars®. First up is The Palace, a pocket-sized war film about the 1974 invasion of the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus by Turkey. Almost forty years later, the island is still divided, with the Turkish-occupied territory of Northern Cyprus unrecognized by the UN as a separate nation. I remember this conflict vaguely since it was one of the first interventions by the UN’s “blue helmets,” a peacekeeping force in which Canadian troops served a major role.

The film wisely chooses to keep the focus on one small event during the invasion, letting the tension stand in for the entire conflict. Stella (Daphne Alexander) is a young mother caught up in the conflict who must keep her cool even under the most terrifying circumstances in order to keep her children safe. Hiding out in an opulent house, she and her children become separated from her husband. She and the children, including a fussy baby, hide in one wardrobe while her husband crowds into another where an old couple are already hiding. A group of soldiers and their sergeant soon enter the house, looking to loot the place. Young conscript Omer (Erol Afsin) bemoans the fact that he’s here rather than in London, where he’s due to audition for drama school, while his rather dimmer comrade Mehmet (Tamer Arslan) seems more suited to a soldier’s role. Stella’s attempts to keep the baby quiet keep the tension rising and even the Turks seem on edge. Until they discover a turntable and for a few short minutes everyone breathes easier as The Easybeats’ “Friday on My Mind” plays, lending some absurdity to the scene. But soon it’s back to business as the sergeant (Kevork Malikyan) hears a noise from one of the wardrobes.

Shot mostly through the louvered doors of the wardrobe, The Palace is able to maintain the tension while refusing to paint the young soldiers as villains. But the fact that their superiors are ordering them to kill civilians and loot their houses doesn’t go unnoticed by the viewer. The film is able to portray just a tiny part of the human tragedy of a conflict that has never been resolved. It reminded me quite a bit of Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies, another depiction of a place with seemingly intractable historical grievances. And though there’s no time for backstory, both Alexander and Afsin bring humanity to their roles. Each is helpless in a different way, and neither will be able to forget the tragedy played out inside The Palace.

Official site of the film