Channel: Short of the Week

Category: Film & Animation

Tags: short filmbest short filmsshort of the weekhorrorfree filmbest youtube videohorror storiesshort filmshorror short filmfree short films

Description: Marina, a former elementary school teacher, emerges badly bruised on the shore of a lake. After a lengthy track through the hot Mexican sun, she lands at the primary school where she once worked. A selection of Short of the Week, the web's leading curators of quality short films. SUBMIT A FILM: shortoftheweek.com/submit FULL REVIEW: shortoftheweek.com/2022/04/04/la-oscuridad Subscribe to S/W on YouTube! Website: shortoftheweek.com Instagram: instagram.com/ShortoftheWeek Facebook: facebook.com/shortoftheweek Twitter: twitter.com/shortoftheweek La Oscuridad (The Darkness) Directed by Jorge Sistos Moreno laoscuridadshortfilm.com "Heaven/hell, Nirvana, Saṃsāra, the end – what you believe happens after you die will largely depend on your religious or spiritual beliefs. In cinema, we’ve seen a lot of different approaches to the ghost story – Patrick Swayze’s sexy spirit in Ghost, Casey Affleck’s sheet-wearing spectre in A Ghost Story, Bruce Willis’ tormented psychologist in The Sixth Sense – but director Jorge Sistos Moreno still manages to deliver a fresh take on the afterlife, in his haunting Cannes short La Oscuridad (The Darkness). The story of former elementary school teacher, Marina, who emerges battered and bruised from a lake, it’s clear early on in Moreno’s film that this isn’t going to be a happy tale, but that’s not surprising considering the filmmaker’s inspiration. Explaining that the narrative originated during his work as a video editor for AJ+ Spanish (Aljazeera), in México City, the filmmaker details how he was “editing testimonials about victims of violence, mothers in despair for the loss of their daughters, disappeared people” and that his fictional piece came from “an emotional response to these stories”. As a male director, although Moreno recognised he wasn’t best placed to tell a story tackling these themes – the violence and hate crimes against women in México and Latin America – he couldn’t ignore his drive, as an artist, to try to do something about these injustices. With that in mind, he set about creating La Oscuridad, outlining some rules to ensure he avoided the typical pitfalls when bringing these stories to screen. Firstly, he choose to avoid showing any male on female graphic violence in his short and secondly he also decided that his film would shun realism and opted for a genre approach instead. These both seem like simple decisions, but both are essential to the success of the film. Although you can pick up the pieces and fit them together fairly early on in La Oscuridad’s 13-minute run-time, the intriguing opening (not showing the violent act that so obviously occurred) instantly hooks you in, while the fantasy approach means you never quite know what will happen next. The overall tone of the film is deeply unsettling, Moreno’s real-life inspiration combines with horror tropes to make a truly distinct piece of genre filmmaking. If you’re happy to call this a horror short – some could argue that it defies simple genre labelling – and I do, I’d say it’s one of the best we’ve ever featured on Short of the Week. The lack of dialogue, the beautiful, yet moody cinematography, the avoidance of cheap scares, Moreno’s filmmaking exudes confidence, but more importantly, it hits so hard in terms of impact. Even without the backstory to the narrative, watching La Oscuridad it’s clear you’re experiencing a piece of fantasy storytelling with a genuine, real-world message. Marina’s story is obviously fictional, but the events that inspired it aren’t and at the end of Moreno’s short, although there’s a sense of peace and stillness in its conclusion (and isn’t it nice to watch a horror short that doesn’t feel like a proof-of-concept?), it’s those very-real incidents you can’t stop thinking about. I know I haven’t. Playing festivals, including Cannes and Fantasia, throughout 2020 and 2021, we’re honoured to host the online premiere of La Oscuridad on Short of the Week and eager to see what Jorge does next in his filmmaking career. If you’re as impressed with this short as we are, you’ll be excited to hear that he has three new projects in the pipeline – his thesis short In Freedom is currently in preproduction, his debut feature La Ausencia is in development and he’s also co-writing a horror-drama series set in colonial México. - S/W Curator Rob Munday Reproduced on this channel with the permission of the filmmakers.