From the opening image and first sound we hear, I knew I was ready to watch a short film that would stand above most, not just in genre, but in almost every aspect of filmmaking and storytelling.
The short film, which has a run time of about twenty-six minutes, is visually stunning. It relies on it's visual storytelling throughout the entire runtime, only has a handful of dialogue throughout, which isn't spoken by either character that we see on screen, and the majority of dialogue comes within the last few minutes of the film.
We follow an unnamed male character as he lives an average day, well, average in terms of this world that the film takes place in. You see, the earth's population died off due to powerful radiation from the sun. In order to go outside, our male character, who lives in an underground bunker, must suit up, from head to toe, in protective layers, including a full mask covering his entire head and face to make sure he does not meet the same fate as the rest of the world's population.
While outside, he finds foot prints that obviously catch his attention. As he goes to investigate further, he's attacked by an unnamed female character who acts more animal like than human.
This quick action sequence is one of several that is very well shot and executed. The use of POV to show this important moment was brilliant on the part of writer/director Nizar Nassar as it puts you in the mindset of our male character, shocked, and desperate for answers.
For the rest of the film, we watch as these two characters try to understand each other and figure out not only what has become of their world, but who exactly each other are and if the other person is a threat or not.
There's a great moment when our male character shows the female character a projection on a large stone wall showcasing some of mankin's history. Personally, this was one of my favorite visuals of the film.
The budget for this film is listed to be around $10,000. In today's Hollywood, nobody would be able to pull off the cinematography, sound and set design, like these filmmakers did. In some of today's big budget films, they wouldn't be able to world build like this film did masterfully without millions of dollars.
As a screenwriter myself, most of the time I can watch a film and predict what's going to happen next. With this film, I found myself unable to predict what was going to happen, and at times, found myself genuinely surprised with the twists (even if small) that the plot takes.
Once or twice, I thought things might start dragging when it comes to pacing, but whenever that thought started to creep into my mind, the film would hit another unexpected plot point and those thoughts quickly went away.
I highly recommend that you watch this film. Everyone does a great job both in front and behind the camera and you can tell that not only was everyone involved very talented in what they do, but that there was passion put into the film, something that seems to be lacking in most films these days.