Belén López IB Film: marzo 2011

‘Strangers’ Review

‘Strangers’, the short film written and directed by Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv, is used to communicate the story of two men, the main theme of the film, discrimination, and how, this two men, confronted by their religious differences, turn to be allies in order to escape from a difficult situation.

The filmmakers choose a subway, moving from station to station, as their setting to create a sense of confinement, how the characters are presented with a situation in a limited space and they cannot leave from that restricted space.

 The opening scene initiates with a medium shot of an empty subway station, by what the audience is able to listen, the train is approaching, and then passes by. The next take portrays a man, in another station, about to get in a train. As he takes a sit, he glances another man, sitting opposite to him. The second man begins to read a newspaper. An extreme close up to it shows that it is written in Arabic, which means that the man is a Muslim. The directors choose to create a contrast as they do another close up to the David’s star the first man has in his necklace. Incredible tension is built through the use of close ups of the faces of both men, as the first one shows his Jewish necklace.

After another stop a group of robust men, all with the same hair cut, approach the two guys and take sits around them. Great tension is created as one of them paints a swastika cross on the Arabic newspaper.

Tension increases even more as the directors do a close up of each men involved in the situation at a time, repeating the two men in the beginning of the film. To make things worse, as they stop in another station the Jew’s cell phone begins to play a very iconic Jew song; bursting the silence of the train. Both men look at each other, and, as the directors include two close ups of two members of the gang, the audience realizes the two characters will have to work together in order to escape the situation they are living. The doors close, providing once again a sense of imprisonment; the two main characters begin to run, and manage to get out of the train on the next station, leaving the gang inside the train, captive.

‘Strangers’ is edited so that it can be easily divided into three main parts. The first one, when the two main characters are sat on the train and they cross views, judging each other. The second part, when the gang arrives and starts to intimidate them. And the third part, when they get to escape from the gang, and return each other’s bags.  

Sound in this short film has a very important role. Even though none of the characters say anything, the sound of the doors opening and closing has a very critical effect, as it creates a sensation of incarceration. On the other hand, the silence on the train as it moves from station to station, builds up tension.

The final scene, where they return each other’s bags, and make eye contact, highlights the main theme of the film, how two men who have many differences, can still work together and help each other.

 This short film is extremely interesting, given that the directors have a great capacity, that enables them to transmit a story, and a lot of different feelings to an audience without a single word pronounced during the entire film.

In my personal opinion, I would rate ‘Strangers’ with ****.

Notes: Sentences/words in orange are those that I did not change.