A Sister

Of the five shorts nominated by the Oscars, this was the best. A simple concept beautifully acted and shot.

"A Sister" is a 16 minute edge of your seat roller coaster ride. The pace is frenetic and relentless, you feel as if you are in the back seat of the car. Wonderful job by director Delphine Girard whom I would like see get a chance to direct a full length feature and kudos to Veerle Baetens as the 911 operator who is cool and poised under pressure and gives a performance you can feel.

Obviously inspired by THE GUILTY and some other movies of this kind, with more or less the same scheme, this short feature seems to be the first draft of a long length film made this year 2023 by this same female director. Many young director do the same actually: first a short movie and then a long one with exactly the same plot. Anyway this one is effective, tough, very well done, so I am sure that this woman film maker has great skills to resume in the profession. She deserves to continue, and not stay in the short "industry". I was really impressed by this one, where dialogues are so accurate, chiseled, yes, very impressive piece of work.

This was an excellent, very well made exciting short film, which makes you sit on the edge of your seat. The dialogues and the performances were all convincing and the ending was cathartic. But unfortunately this movie is kind of a copy paste of a great danish movie called "The Guilty". If that movie didn't exist I would give this one a 10/10 rating, but the plot is so similar to "The Guilty" that it couldn't surprise me despite it's great presentation. Still I think this is the best of the Oscar nominated live action short films this year this year (I haven't seen SARIA yet). P.S.: I didn't spoil "The Guilty", watch that if you liked this!

It is one of short films who you discover, scene by scene, detail by detail, as perfect. From inspired storytelling to the performances and cinematography. At first sigh, a gem. In essence, an intense drama because you feel each nuance of dialogue and its minimalism is real powerful. A call . A woman in the car. And her, in so many senses, sister. Short, exceptional in each detail.