This short film was presented to me for review and I found it heartwarming, but shallow at the same time. It should be noted that "Bienenstich" (Bee Sting in English) is a German Pastry. Thilo Berndt plays a young boy with an extreme social anxiety disorder that prevents him from speaking to anyone but his grandmother played by Renate Fuhrmann. No explanation as to why he lives with her, the whereabouts of his parents and above all, why this disorder only effects his speech. His shyness doesn't prevent him from otherwise functioning normally around others. The acting is poor, the storyline is incomplete unfulfilled. Thilo Berndt is talented. You'll have to suffer the entire 15 minutes to find why this boy was chosen for the part. I want to see him develop his acting ability. I give this short film 6 stars.
2 Reviews
Heartwarming and fulfilling
thelorddoctor17 February 2016
I watched this short film a few minutes ago and read the one and only review posted. I also found this short film heartwarming but did not find it "shallow" in any way or form. "Paul" the main character does indeed suffer from an anxiety or rather fears to talk to others. At the opening scene without knowing Paul or his past when he sees other kids playing and his brief hesitation one thing becomes obvious; he doesn't have friends and might have been ridiculed or being ignored for a reason that we still don't know yet but are about to find out very quickly. Watching the movie and following the conversations two things became obvious; Paul's parents are one of those "all the time" busy parents. Dad works and travels out of the city if not the country and Mom is also busy at the office or the shop or etc. Paul is left alone to fend for himself and the closest person to him is his Oma (grandmother), someone Paul visits and communicate with, someone he is at ease to communicate with. It seems Paul is suffering from lack of communication when he was younger and even though he can speak he hasn't developed the skills to communicate easily like everyone else yet. It feels like Paul is being ignored by his peers as well as his parents and the only person who actually pays any attention to him is his Oma and later on a dog and its owner. At a point when he is helping Oma picking apples and she sings a tune and asks Paul to chime in he declares "I can't speak so many words". That one statement right there explains his problem with putting words together to speak. The breakthrough for Paul comes when an accident or an unfortunate event in the eyes of the viewers and a disaster in the eyes of Paul happens. The outcome of this unfortunate event is the breaking point to reverse the roles for Paul and Oma. In my opinion the movie ends well enough with Paul being able to do one thing that he has wished to do for a very long time. In general the movie being a short one delivers the message it intends to. We all know how hard it is to deliver a message in a short film without running out of time. The dialog certainly has room for improvement, in fact it requires improvement but it is enough to deliver the movie. Thilo Berndt acting is considerably well and shows talent. His facial expressions and mood changes go with the film and is related to the scenes. Congratulations to the director/writer of this film Sarah Winkenstette for directing Thilo Brendt to perform appropriately for each scene considering this was Thilo's first ever acting job. My rating for this short film is 8/10.
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