Shadowscan

Two junior NHS workers are in the middle of a night shift and dealing with it in different ways. Satinda is tired and put upon while Amir is seemingly cheerful and helps pick her up. However Amir is also depressed and using drugs and self harm to help him get by. Eventually they both have to decide how to deal with their stressful lives and to live with the consequences.

Professionally shot, this short looks very good. Some shorts tend to look like student films or have sets etc that look like they were borrowed from a sitcom, but this feels very professionally produced. The story is not so much a story as a character study of the two NHS (British health care service) workers. One works through the stress while the other buries it and uses harmful methods of dealing with it. Needless to say the short has a message about these two characters but it does it without judging either.

The two actors are great – Gulati is bubbly and quite beautiful while Bazely is perfect with the difficult job of half hiding a second character beneath his main character. Likewise the director does a very good job and the short feels and looks very good.

Overall a very good short, the only minor complaints being that it left me with some unanswered question – maybe repeat viewings are in order.

I saw this short film on Channel 4 in the UK recently and was amazed. It looks superb, helped in part by being in Anamorphic. In fact, the cinematography is stunning, and actually seems to help tell the story, bringing out the best of the location in a way that most short films don't (or can't, because of budgetary reasons). The hospital seems dark and soulless, the type of place where someone might feel depressed. There's a beautifully shot sequence where the two main characters wander the hospital corridors and store rooms, basically having a laugh to cheer themselves up. It's strikingly juxtaposed with the moment when Amir reveals that he is depressed, as it emphasizes the dramatic mood swings depressed people go through in such a short time. And of course Paul Bazely's performance is spot on. Anyone who has ever suffered from depression will know what an amazing performance this is. When we see a tear rolling down his cheek and realise that Satinda will never see just how bad he feels is deeply affecting. This is the kind of directing one sees less and less of these days - simple scene staging, revealing to the audience something the other characters can't see. Hopefully it won't be too long before Tinge Krishnan gets a chance at a feature.