★★

Directed by: #BijanKarim

Starring: #AldenDoyle, #KellenJackson, #SuchitraVanRielBarrett

Short Film Review by: Alexandra James

Rosa is a short film about 3 friends, Adrian, Kyra, and Rosa. However, Rosa has faded away, where to and how is not exactly clear. The audience are left in a state of confusion in terms of the time frame of this. However, Rosa’s disappearance has left Adrian and Kyra in a state of loneliness and uncertainty, especially in terms of love and their feelings towards one another. Director Bijan Karim explores the vulnerability of the characters and how loss can often draw people closer together, but this can also bring forth complications such as guilt or betrayal. It is sometimes difficult to separate that need for comfort and actual love. This certainly seems to be the case between Adrian and Kyra, a mixture of emotions combined with young naivety leads to an uneasy relationship between the two.

The story begins with Kyra and Adrian alone in the woods together sharing a personal moment, they smoke weed and Adrian shares how he cut his hand. They then spend the night together in the forest, a quiet spot where Kyra escapes to so that she can be alone but has now chosen to share this space with Adrian. The location here was beautiful, the crystal-clear river flowing, the deep greens of the overhanging trees as well as the isolated feel of the forest itself was truly captivating and picturesque.

There is chemistry between the two characters, but it appears very repressed at times as if they are unwilling to share their true feelings towards each other and perhaps Rosa is at the source of this emotional distance. However, this is not entirely clear, the storyline is often missing pieces of information which would help to patch together the narrative. The film needed to provide detail surrounding the characters so that the audience can understand the relationship between them and their missing friend so that we can fully digest this piece. The facts do not need to be explicitly told and spelled out to the audience; however, some background information would have encouraged more of a fascination with the characters and their lives from the audience perspective.

It was difficult to understand a lot of the dialogue throughout this short, sound was an element which could have been improved as the background noise whether this be wind, trees or traffic buried the voice of the actors which in turn made some scenes hard to follow. Sound is crucial as the audience need to focus on the words, meaning, tone, and delivery as this allows us to establish the relationship or connection between the characters. This would be something to develop upon to help aid the storyline and for it to flow a lot smoother.