Night (2021) User Reviews

Beautiful

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 11 October 2022]

Ahmed Saleh's Night is based on the true story of a Palestinian mother and took four years to make, which you will realize is true after seeing how detailed the stop motion animation is. Hiam Abbass is the voice of the mother, Salma Saleh is her daughter and Night is played by Rafia Oraidi.

The idea of this film is that Night has to fool the Mother into sleeping to save her soul as war rages all around. This lives up to its title -- it's very dark in tone -- and the music is beyond sumptuous. It's haunting throughout and tells its story in an incredibly effective way.

I'd love to see a behind the scenes to learn how how of this was made.

touching, in profound sense

[Kirpianuscus · 3 February 2024]

The like-silk of Arab language as intro of this splendid short animation.

The night and its baby - face, black cloth , stars as diamonds.

The mother and her cry in a destroyed city.

The venerable couple in middle of ruins.

The room full of people, refuges. The apartments after the falling of wall.

The fairy tale air. The solution of night to give sleep to poor lady. The music. The expressions of gestures and faces, creating a double story or , maybe, its roots.

More than admirable short stop motion animation, a profound necessary remind about realities near us, so easy to ignore. About full grief. About sleep as cure.

In short, just great.

Absolutely beautiful

[bulk-austin · 9/10 · 3 December 2023]

We watched this in London on 2nd December 2023, as part of the Bethlehem Cultural Festival, during the ongoing Israeli destruction of Gaza.

Wow, it is so evocatively made, with very little dialogue, but so many emotions communicated through facial expressions and body language. Beautifully filmed. Stop motion animation, with a dark and haunting aesthetic. Simple but very atmospheric.

For me, it communicated some of the sense of utter hopelessness and despair that must be felt by a population that has been subjected to periodic bombings and airstrikes for decades. Every one of the 20,000 or so deaths is as tragic as the experience of the mother portrayed here.