I love the way that Taika Cohen who also made "Two Cars One Night" celebrates the little moments in life where we reveal our humanity. If that sounds cheesy, then it's my fault, not Cohen's. His two wonderful shorts capture these moments without sentimentality. I believe that this is his greatest strength: two kids fall in love in a pub car park at night; a platoon of Maori soldiers show respect for victims of war while they are themselves in danger. The shorts are uplifting but real and gritty, both in black and white or muted color, no eye candy, nothing false.
This little film started slowly for me. I couldn't really be less interested in group of guys running through a ruined town then hiding in a bombed out building. Then the story starts and with it the humor and warmth. There is no dialogue at all, little music and hardly any color. And yet the story is tells is super. There's more characterization in 15 minutes here that in 3 and a half hours of King Kong, another NZ film! (Actually, that's really mean, but I still think that this director has more to say to us than Peter Jackson has right now.) Watch out for Taika Cohen