There’s a strange trend among the Oscar-nominated short films. Every year, it seems that the documentary branch knocks it out of the park. They choose outstanding films that attack topical issues with riveting feats of storytelling. The animated films generally boast innovations in the art form told through a variety of lenses. They’re often as fun as they are daring. The live action Oscar nominated shorts, however, tend to be a collective slog. The trend continues somewhat this year with the live action contenders. They have urgent messages, but they generally can’t sustain their self-importance. Call them cinematic broccoli.
Take, for example, the likely winner A Lien. Directors David Cutler-Kreutz and Sam Cutler-Kreutz spotlight an important ripped-from-the-headlines tale with this story of a family torn apart by ICE. William Martinez and Victoria Ratermanis play a married couple that arrives for an ordered interview to support the husband’s citizenship. The film illustrates how these issued interviews often serve as interceptions by ICE. Everyday people following the bureaucratic process find their lives altered by taking the bait. The subject merits the spotlight, but the telling is overwrought.
A Lien assumes a chaotic energy as jittery camerawork and over-caffeinated editing evoke the disorientation the family experiences. It’s one of those movies, too, where even pen-pusher speaks in empty bureaucratic platitudes and moves very painfully slowly. But at the same time, nobody in A Lien feels real. Every character the family encounters borders upon caricature without being allegorically Kafkaesque.
Perhaps it’s fair that this issue has no time for subtlety. A Lien, arriving on the start of another Trumpian reign of terror, can’t afford to do anything but hammer folks over the head. It gets its message across, but might leave people feeling angry for the wrong reasons.
Ditto The Last Ranger. This short from director Cindy Lee dramatizes the true story of a rhinoceros that survived a vicious attack and a ranger who gave her life to save it. The Last Ranger hails from an anthology called “When the World Stopped” about lives affected during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. This entry focuses on the impact of lockdown on tourism.
Young Litha (Liyabona Mroqoza) trots off to view the rhinos and crosses path with ranger Khuselwa (Avumile Qongqo). The girl wonders when her dad can go back to driving tourists on safari, but the elder preservationist can’t say. However, when they spy poachers in close proximity, taking advantage of the situation to bag rhinos for their horns, the film speaks to the burdens of economic necessity that force people to turn on their own land. Some genuinely compelling performances ensure that The Last Ranger hits some emotional notes even though it takes a predictable turn, while grisly violence adds shock value to the topical message.
Grim circumstances and a child’s fate also fuel fellow nominee Anjua. This one also finds inspiration in a real-world problem as director Adam J. Graves uses a touching narrative to draw attention to the plight of child labourers in India. The titular Anuja is a nine-year-old girl working in a garment factory. An elder encourages Anuja, supposedly a math whiz, to take an exam that will give her a chance at an education that girls of her caste rarely receive. The young child grasps her circumstances and recognizes the choice she faces: if she pursues an education, her family loses income since she won’t be working 14-hour days.
However, kids will be kids and Anuja embarks on a little selling spree with her elder sister, who makes bags out of scraps at the factory. Anuja lets audiences experience one day in the life of a kid who just wants to go to the movies and eat sweets like other children. But the film deftly balances the morale with the dramatic arc, as young actor Sajda Pathan gives an extraordinary performance. A child from the same circumstances as Anuja, Pathan affords her character a lived-in sense of childlike wonder. As Anuja confronts the decision she must make that will determine her fate and that of her sister, the film provides a touching and troubling study of child exploitation. Graves pulls off a tricky tightrope walk here, as Anuja balances the gravity of the tale with its actor’s own circumstances. That Anuja conjures a sense of joy without sugar-coating its heroine’s situation proves a commendable feat. (Read more about Anuja in our interview with Graves and executive producer Mindy Kaling.)
Audiences looking for laughs among the relatively bleak category get a reprieve in I’m Not a Robot. The Dutch comedy has a lark with robotics and artificial intelligence as Lara (Ellen Parren) struggles with the CAPTCHA on her computer. It asks her to do those annoying tests, like clicking all the squares containing traffic lights in a picture, to prove she’s not a robot. Even when she seemingly nails test after test, the computer insists she prove her humanity.
Parren’s performance elevates what is ultimately a one-note joke of a film. The film offers little more than a novel premise as Lara thinks that everyone in her sphere is gaslighting her into believing that she’s a robot. It’s a bit thin for an Oscar contender, but this enjoyable breather proves that not all members of the shorts branch have an axe to grind against laughter, joy, and smiling.
Perhaps the bleakest film, but also the most rewarding one, is The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent. Directed by Nebojsa Slijepcevic, this riveting drama transports audiences of 1993 Bosnia and Herzegovina as a family travels on a train. An unexpected stop brings soldiers into the cars. They order passengers to show their ID and nearly everyone nervously complies. The film barely leaves the claustrophobic confines of a single train booth, which adds to the tension as the passengers wonder about their fates as chaos ensues around them.
The film offers a fair companion to A Lien with its parable about families divided and lives upended by extremist politics. Putting the films side by side doesn’t do A Lien any favours, though: The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent blows it out of the water. This is one tautly composed film.
Slijepcevic crafts a suspenseful tale about what it means to speak up in the face of authoritarianism. It’s a poignant tribute to one person would paid the cost for standing up for what’s right. Of all the films that tackle a hot-button topic in the Oscar-nominated live action shorts, this one feels most of the moment even though it dramatizes a story from the past. The film already has a Palme d’Or and a European Film Award to its name. An Oscar would be a worthy addition for this quietly political fable.
