The five short films in the CONNECTION strand at this year’s Cambridge Film Festival were all recent, and mostly modern. The “connection” theme was not made explicit, but the films explored the links and bonds between people; whether long lost family or a group of strangers; the person someone was and the one they may become; relationships that the participants want to strengthen or dissolve. It can be hard to be close, and hard to be separate.
The first film seems to be about a lack of connection. AFTER THE FATHER HAS CHOSEN (Joseph Boys) is a cosy catastrophe. An old man preaches to an empty field; the seats are there but the congregation has gone, scattered to forage after the Quiet Apocalypse. There is a traditional English Home Counties feel, and his belongings are arranged much like a living room but against a hedge, to comical effect – he tunes his radio and gets only static. Alone, he decides to set out, exploring empty ground as though on a sunny Sunday stroll, neatly turned out with a bright umbrella. The director shows a strong sense of abandoned place, in which the preacher finds both food and an opportunity for some childlike fun and delight. But where have the people gone? And what is the strange noise in his ears? As he searches for his missing flock, it seems that a cycle may begin again. This is a charming film, succinctly told at 8 minutes, with a deft and lighthearted touch and a few surprises. The cinematography captured the summer landscape well, and a few broken rules contributed to the sense that something here is not quite right.
Over in contemporary Chicago, BABY MARY (directed by Kris Swanberg) is a touching portrayal of a girl’s transformation in a compassionate environment. Takiyah Dixon plays an unnamed eight-year-old who forms a bond with a younger child. As she walks home from school on a hot afternoon, uncomfortable and alone, the streets are baking with haze and the people she passes are overheated – yelling taunts at her and arguing with each other. The girl sees a toddler who is being ignored by the shouting adults, and decides to take her away and care for her. When they get home safely, the younger girl relaxes and the change is astonishing. Although there is comedy value in the older girl’s unpracticed parenting, she shows the child (who she names Baby Mary) the tenderness that maybe she feels is lacking in her own life; although the reaction when her mother returns suggests there is more there for her. The performances from the unprofessional cast are particularly impressive.
TROIS NUITS ET UNE MORTE presents the problem of how to deal with a disruptive guest who is also a family member…
The next connection is less tangible. It is autumn, and the moon looms ominously over a rural barn. Inside, a young girl looks lonely and melancholy as she plays with her toy horse and jewelled makeup box. IN A MIRROR (directed by Orson Hentschel) is not a mundane, realist film; though the moon hangs outside, sometimes a dazzling sun glares through the rafters. As the girl carefully but inexpertly applies lipstick and eyeliner, studying her reflection in the mirror of her ornate box, the film cuts to a rear view mirror and the eye of an older woman driving, with the same clumsy eyeliner. It invites speculation as to the connection between the two: if the woman is the child grown up, if she is remembering the girl she was. The girl ventures outside, lured by a glossy black stallion analogous to her toy, and then sequences get disjointed and more dreamlike – the horse curling round her in an impossible embrace, she runs through misty woods to escape something unseen, and to the woman who is now on the ground, dead or lost to an erotic reverie? IN A MIRROR presents the dream symbolism we don’t know how to interpret as children – dread unknown, and the unfocussed yearning of unrecognised sexual desire – with an oppressive, nightmarish quality.
TAXISTOP (directed by Marie Enthoven) is a Belgian odd-couple comedy extended to a whole minivan of people who need to make the long journey to Geneva. It centres on Antoine, a divorcee and doting father who has to give an important presentation on teambuilding; though he is a meek man and lacks the leadership charisma needed for the role. Thwarted by a rail strike and an unhelpful ex-wife who refuses to drive him (she is coincidentally going to Geneva on the same day, with their young daughter), he signs up in desparation for Taxistop, a liftsharing scheme. One would hope this cooperative endeavour would be of benefit to everyone, but the four passengers and driver have such different expectations and attitudes that it quickly turns to distrust and disagreement, and reaches levels of farcical dysfunction and savagery that no amount of team building keywords can remedy. While things get worse, they keep passing Antoine’s wife’s car, his daughter waving happily from the window. The journey is a well paced descent into problem and disaster, the sniping between passengers well observed and incongrous in the colourful and shambolic van “Flower”. Antoine soon takes another journey, which leads away from work and towards more happy times with his daughter…
TROIS NUITS ET UNE MORTE (Stéphane Dirschauer) presents the problem of how to deal with a disruptive guest who is also a family member: a visitor who won’t leave, who only oversteps the line a little at a time and so doesn’t warrant extreme measures, but who pushes boundaries and ends up draining the time, emotional energy and wine cellars of their relatives. Patrick runs a successful restaurant in Toronto, and early shots include abstract closeups of stacked plates suggesting the stability and elegance of his life. His half-sister Nathe has dropped in from Montreal: they catch up, he gives her dinner and a bus ticket home, but the next morning she is still there. Structured over the three nights of the title, there is a slow escalation of her antisocial behaviour, with mood swings, lies and a need to be the centre of attention. Her increasingly risky acts drive him to concerns about how to remove her, and this tension leads to speculation as to who “Une Morte” will refer to.