The Sand Storm (2014) User Reviews

Beautiful but lacks story

[jon-832 · 7/10 · 9 September 2014]

Getting Christopher Doyle for this project was a major coup for creator Jason Wishnow. It is an absolutely beautiful looking film, with top-notch CGI to boot. There is no doubt that Wishnow got some talented people to work on this film. Unfortunately, like most short film, the story is somewhat lacking. This film is set in China in a future where there is a severe water shortage. Despite this interesting premise, most of the film is taken up with a love-triangle which might be more interesting if this were a feature film, takes up far too much time of the precious few minutes available. It seems that Wishnow was not able to flesh out the other aspects of the story (although there were many interesting teasers) so added the love story to fill time.

Overall I give this a seven out of ten, perhaps a bit higher but I am always a sucker for high-production short films and this is top quality.

Beautiful Short Dystopian Film

[slenkoff · 7/10 · 25 July 2019]

Formally it's near future SF film. Sand storm interrupts the water supply to Chinese megapolis. Water turns into valuable treasure for the people in this city and they are buying it from The Smuggler. Legendary Chinese artist and architect Ai Weiwei is playing this role. He is very charismatic person and this short film is built around this person. The Smuggler is alter ego of Ai Weiwei, and the water here is symbol of free flowing information in our modern world. Yes, clear water turns into main treasure in our century, but the message of the this film is not only ecological. Or rather it's about ecology of our minds. Yes, it's beautifully looking film, but it's hard not to see the story there. You just have to watch it as a metaphorical work. Problem is that The Sand Storm was made as pilot project for the feature length SF film, so it's interrupted when you are waiting for continuation of the story. But the story and its final is quite clear for the thoughtful viewer. Problem is majority of the viewers are used to childish simplicity of the language of the commercial cinema. Just good arthouse short SF film. Sad that there were no continuation.