Reflective Encounters

“There’s an exciting simplicity to Jonas Reimer’s film. His camera hangs above its subject, patiently following their perilous trip across foreign waters. It’s an artistic choice as minimal as it is unnerving; a story told with shots that move with the mechanical skill of surveillance drones. It’s an approach that draws out the tensions of each scene, especially the opening moments. The character’s process of escape plays like a thriller as they move anxiously from one vehicle to the next.

Always present is the sea, a dominating force in the frame. Opening with an image of surging water, the film turns the ocean into a somewhat abstract space: dark, glistening, and dangerous. Reimer lingers on this menacing image during a prolonged opening shot. The character’s sense of displacement is hardly relieved when eventually arriving on land. Despite the harshness of the subject matter, the short manages to conjure some visionary moments: a rescue boat hovering above traffic, or a sinking city fenced in with stone walls.

It’s to the director’s credit that his subject is never simplified. The protagonist is a contradictory character, a refugee whose stance on immigration becomes reactionary. Within this contradiction is the film’s most alarming message: that victims of oppression are encouraged to defend the system over their fellow comrades.”

— Chris Childs