Bonobo

One advantage of making a short film is you only need to present an incident or an idea well. Things like keeping an intact plot, narrative structure and character development... well, let those making feature films to worry about! No such problem for Bonobo, which is totally satisfactory on all layers and brilliantly realised in a short film format.

Three characters with no relations to each other but connected through their residency in the same housing estate, have their lives changed because of an elevator. The film brutally depicts the urban decay of our modern society and the multitude of social predicaments arises.

Typical French social drama taking place in a ghetto tower where an elevator is out of order, and believe me, that provokes much trouble to the people living in this building. It is bittersweet and certainly not funny. This plot is realistic, close to what actually happens in my country where nothing never works properly. France, the kingdom of institutionalized, official, jam, disorder, mismanagement,. Mess. Good directing, very well done, fantastic editing too for those three tales. I like this kind of short films, where there is noting intellectual, complicated but it remains pessimistic, although realistic.

If you are talented storyteller, the recipe is simple: mix one high-rise boulding, some ordinary people and bloody elevator. Result? Bonobo - wonderfull, gripping short about frustration.

The movie follows three different characters. There is an old disabled guy Felix, the type of neighbor who is always calling police and yelling at children; single mother Ana, struggling with her move and young guard Seydou, who wants to be a dancer (you may say he's a dreamer*). When the elevator of their boulding breaks down, the fates of Felix, Ana and Seydou intertwine towards an intense finale.

Young director Zoel Aeschbacher gives a realistic look on everyday life, social problems, relationships and clearly shows the anger and frustration of people who feel trapped by their circumstances.

The cinematography and editing are great, the story is really well written, characters are likeable and the actors do a very good job. Emotionaly Bonobo is a rollarcoaster. I think we'll be seeing a lot more of Zoel Aeschbacher.

* But he's not the only one.

Reading the gushing reviews on IMDb, I must admit I do feel a certain pressure to adore this film in the way others seem to have done. I do not love it as much, but I certainly enjoyed what it did with its trio of socially-aware narratives, and how well it fused them together around a system failure to then demonstrate the pressures and entrapment on the individuals. This it does very well. In terms of the individual narratives, I didn't think any one of them really broke out of the specifics of their scenario, which is to say that I found them to be their scene rather than people. However, despite this, the film makes them work well, because ultimately the viewer is caught up in the pressure that is on them, and it carried me along with it as it seemed to increase its pace and tension in time with the musical score which plays unobtrusively in the back.

The locations and performances are well delivered, and the social message resonates because of how it draws the viewer into the pressure and the feeling of being trapped by situations that simply having more money and more access would solve. I had some reservations with some of its simplicity, but it more than compensates for these to make a strong whole.

A masterfully created short film. It is a very original story idea. Each character has a unique story, and each story intertwines together and leads up to an incredible finale. I LOVED the slow-motion montage at the end, with the intense music score.