Short Film Analysis - Strangers

 

 

The storyline of this film is about two strangers who come across each other on a train. The theme of religion is represented straight away; as we see one of the men reading a Palestinian newspaper and the other is playing with a necklace chain holding a Jewish symbol. 

After a continuous stream of conflicting looks shooting from one to the other there is a short pause before hearing the emphasised sound of footsteps which seem to be getting closer to the two men. The footsteps came from a group of similar looking thugs; as the group came into view the Jewish man tucked his necklace under his top hiding the only sign of him being of a different ethnic group. The thugs were represented in the stereotypical way of shaven heads, muscle or of a bigger build, tattoos and piercings.

The group sat surrounding the two men aiming a large amount of negative vibes at the Palestinian due to his religion being symbolised through the newspaper and the Jewish man’s religion being unknown to the thugs. The two men begin to trade a set of looks again, this time instead of being conflicting towards each other, they are conflicting against the thugs and realising between each other that they are in trouble.

The Jewish mans religion is then revealed when his phone starts to ring, playing a piece of music related to his religion. The thugs then turn to the Jewish man realising they are both foreign. The two men put their religions to aside and work together to escape from the thugs and do so successfully. Next we see the pair facing each other on opposite sides of the track, both still in a civil state of mind and accepting that religion doesn’t always have to be the main priority.

Getting this much information from a 7 minute film that has no dialogue in must mean that it is a pretty good film with a very clear narrative. Which this film certainly does; the first equilibrium of the film would be the two separate men living their lives before they come across each other on the train. That would be where the disequilibrium would begin and would therefore continue throughout until they escape from the thugs. The second equilibrium would then begin once they are off the train and successfully out of harm from the thugs.

The genre of this film would be ethnic due to its storyline and the hidden message in this short film, would be that everybody is equal no matter what ethnic group you belong to or what the views of people in your home country are.