Hollyshorts Review Roundup Part 4

Very sadly Hollyshorts Film Festival came to a close on Sunday with their closing awards ceremony. We were absolutely delighted with their choices of winners with some familiar faces to this site like Wander to Wonder winning animation, Motherland in drama and Tea for best producer. Congrats to all of the winners! In this roundup of reviews we are including Anuja which won Best Live Action and Corpse Fishing that won Best Cinematography. We are also including another short with outstanding cinematography in Dovecote. See our full reviews below!

Anuja, dir. Adam J. Graves

The young girl and titular character Anuja works with her older sister Palak in a back-alley garment factory in Delhi, India. We join the girls as Palak is telling Anuja a good night story their mom used to tell them, and we learn that for one reason or another the mother is no longer with them and the sisters are on their own living in poverty.

At the garment factory one day Anuja gets called in to the supervisor Mr. Verma’s office, where her school teacher Mr. Mishra has joined them. Mr. Mishra is disappointed that Anuja has not been attending school, and goes on to explain that she has a particular gift for learning. He presents her with a chance to attend boarding school, one that as he puts it “don’t usually take girls like…” before biting his tongue, and all she has to do is take the test the upcoming Tuesday morning.There is a slight issue though - the exam fee is ₹400 (roughly $5USD or £3.5) which is not a sum that Anuja can pay on her own. Back home that night the sisters discuss the proposal and how they can figure out the payment. The street-smart Palak has been secretly scheming for her dream of one day finding a husband to marry so she decides to let Anuja in on her ways.

Following some risky maneuvers the sisters manage to come up with the ₹400 they need and then some, and they decide to celebrate by going to the movies together - a luxury clearly not afforded to them often. However, back at the factory Mr. Verma has been cooking up his own plans. He realized after the teacher had left that he could use Anuja’s talents to make his factory more efficient without having to hire someone to help him with the calculations. Naturally he plans this so it coincides with the exam he now knows that Anuja needs to take in order to escape the harsh factory environment.

Young Anuja is now faced with the impossible decision to either go and take the exam and grab the chance of a better life for herself, or to show up in her supervisor's office and save both her own and her sister’s jobs…

Anuja was produced in partnership with the Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT), a nonprofit organization working to provide food, shelter and education to thousands of children living in the streets of New Delhi. Sajda Pathan who plays Anuja in the film is a resident of a SBT center and one of the children taken in by the foundation, adding a true layer of realism to the depiction. While the film is fiction, this is certainly the reality for many children worldwide as nearly one in ten children under the age of fifteen is subject to child labor. As the credits roll we see Sajda, together with the other children, watching the film for the first time at the SBT center.

The film finds brief moments of joy in the midst of the tough challenges of survival the two sisters face. Such as the playful retorts between them as Anuja practices her reading by checking out the contact ads in the local paper for her sister, or the childlike joy in their eyes as they come over a small sum of cash unexpectedly and make the decision to get snacks and go to the movies. And I think this mirrors much of what the organizations such as SBT is trying to achieve, a small glimmer of hope in a reality that can sometimes feel like endless darkness. One in ten is a huge statistic, but with films like these putting a spotlight on the issue we can all hope to shrink it down piece by piece.

Review by: Robin Hellgren

Corpse Fishing, Jean Liu

How far would you go to get closure? Corpse Fishing explores that very idea as we follow our protagonist on a journey of desperation and grief to acceptance. 

Yan is a girl who seems to be just scraping by trying to make ends meet. We find her set up on a chair by a river, along with her karaoke machine that she has setup for people to pay to use. A sudden eeriness sets in and her customers are quickly driven away by a sudden pungent smell. The smell turns out to be coming from an approaching boat to the docks captained by a man looking to buy cigarettes from her. When Yan tells him his catch is rotting he responds knowingly and when Yan asks what he caught, he replies with “corpses”. 

At first this may seem like a morbid premise as this man (known as Old Bo) reveals that he fishes out dead bodies that end up in the river for any variety of reasons. Things get deep and real fast between Yan and Bo. Yan reveals she doesn’t mind the smell because her mom used to bring her along when she cleaned toilets for a living and also reveals that her father is missing. She reluctantly agrees to spend time on the boat with Old Bo in exchange for the ability to look at the bodies on the boat without cost. One body per day on the boat. 

Jean Liu has proved herself to be a multi-faceted director/writer this year, not only writing and directing this empathetic portrait of grief but also showing off her comedic chops in her short Learning English that played at Tribeca earlier on this year. Although this short is largely a drama, she still allows a bit of comedy to shine through with comedic hard cuts and clever quips between Yan and Old Bo. 

As we learn, the job of corpse fishing isn’t just a gentle float down the river. It also shows how the families of the dead have difficulty of dealing with the pain. At some points things can even turn violent. 

“People need an outlet to express the injustices of the world. I’m a convenient target.“

More than anything, Corpse Fishing is a short about empathy. Through grief, the characters learn to empathize with the dead and the families of the dead as well as with each others' situation. Corpse Fishing ends on a compassionate note. Though closure may not be found in the way Yan expects, she finds acceptance in making these corpses feel more human than ever. 

Review by: Brandon MacMurray

Dovecote, dir. Marco Perego

Dovecote is a visual feast that takes you on a journey as Javier Julia (Argentina, 1985) puts on impressive displays of cinematography.

Directed by Marco Perego and starring Zoe Saldana, Dovecote transports you to the canals of Venice as a prison guard steps onto a gondola. At sunrise with light barely breaking, the guard maneuvers the boat through the dimly lit canals and under tight spaces on the way to the prison where he works. When the guard reaches the prison and enters, the camera travels through a hole in the wall into the prison. There is an incredible change as the shot morphs from colour in academy ratio to black and white with a wide ratio. It is in this prison room we first meet Zoe Saldana’s character. 

A beautiful score mainly drives this short as there is next to no dialogue, more fitting for such a contemplative short as opposed to sticking to a strict narrative. As we follow Zoe’s character through the prison you quickly learn she’s served her time and is now free to go. Throughout the scenes in the prison the camera does not break, flowing in and out of rooms and around people, almost like it is dancing with its subjects. It’s astonishing that almost every person seen in this short is an actual prison guard or a real inmate, giving the short a documentary feel. The portrait of these women you see all gathered in the hallway is stunning. As Zoe leaves the prison another woman enters, like ships passing in the night, replacing the void that Zoe left. 

In the end, we are left with one final shot - one this short was inspired by. Zoe is back outside smoking on a bench. Colour has returned and so has the narrower academy ratio shot. On the ground sits a pigeon unable to move. Zoe’s acting excels here as she squeezes out every ounce of emotion in her facial expressions. 

Dovecote asks the question: What does it mean to be truly free?

It’s ironic that the shots in the prison use a wider, more open look, conveying more freedom. Inversely, the narrower and closer look used outside of the prison feels more constrained. A lot of the women in this prison come from abusive situations or households. Is there freedom in their camaraderie from the abuse and expectations of the outside? Just like the pigeon outside who lost its ability to fly, sitting calmly outside. Freedom isn’t always about spreading your wings. It can come in many forms, even when everything is stripped away as you sit in stillness. 

Review by: Brandon MacMurray