Countdown (1995)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Marcel Kyrill Gardelli

Writer:

Marcel Kyrill Gardelli (writer)

Genre:

Short

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Heinz Hoenig

...

Selbstmörder

Runtime:

9 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Company:

CH Film & TV

Trivia:

The film is part of the bonus material on the January 2003 German DVD release of "Die Verurteilten" (The Shawshank Redemption (1994)).

Little but big

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

A 9 minutes shorty isn't exactly much - but may make one think more than 9 minutes. I suppose it's a student piece from Berlin or Potsdam - black and white, but widescreen, and fascinating in its way.

Spoilers galore: A man sets up a contraption to shoot himself. A gun whose trigger is bound to a mechanical toy, a drumming panda on a little cart driven by clockwork. Test run works well. Now he enables the gun and straps himself to the chair (last hand with a handcuff), and lets the panda run... With destiny on its way, he looks around, sees a photo of woman and child. Looking out of the window, he sees a pram with a crying baby that starts rolling into the street. Frantically, he frees himself from the bonds, runs out, saves the baby just before it is run over by a truck, lifts it from the pram, sees another man smiling at him, and himself looking out of the window...

In the end his contraption works.

Questions. Was he just fantasizing the baby rescue? That's most plausible to me. Who was the smiling man? All in all, an interesting little piece. And by the way, another allusion to Bronenosets Potyomkin (the runaway pram) :^)