"The Red Suitcase" is a new live action short film from Luxembourg and this country you really don't read about too often as a production country. It is also the only one, even if the film includes a pretty massive total of four languages during its only 18 minutes of running time. Not even a third of an hour. The writer and director here is Cyrus Neshvad, a really prolific short film director for easily over a decade now and he has also scored an impressive amount of awards recognition for his works here. Marketing does not seem to be a problem with him. So, I am not surprised to see him nominated for an Oscar too now. You never know what happens at the live action short category and I would not be surprised if this film takes home the awards. It is probably not the frontrunner right now, maybe not even in the second spot either, but the advantage it has over the Irish and Italian nominees is that it deals with a more relevant subject. Or several subjects you could say. What do we have here? Forced marriage, discrimination again women, immigration. That is quite a lot and all up the Academy's alley. Can it win? We will see soon enough. For now, we can add that Neshvad's co-writer Guillaume Levil has also a really successful past od writing short films in recent years and has been pretty much as successful as Neshvad himself. The collaboration makes sense. I cannot say if the two have worked on previous projects together and I am too lazy to check now, but I am sure they are both happy about finding each other. I also cannot say too much about the cast here, but I think they did a fine job, most of all lead actress Nawelle Ewad who is in every scene of the film that is basically one long scene in total and she is in it from beginning to end. The beginning was a bit too stereotypical for my taste with the possibility of explosives in the red suitcase, but when we get a look inside together with the customs employees, all we see is stuff that a (creative) girl would own. In any case, if she was a terrorist, she would not have picked a red suitcase that everybody pays attention to immediately.
The film gets better the longer it goes then. We understand she is a really likable character and a huge victim of the entire situation. Her father sold her to another man and she is supposed to marry the latter in Luxembourg and he is there at the airport to pick her up and take her to his home literally right away where the wedding guests are already waiting. Those must be crazy too. Anyway, seeing her try to get away from the man while having this suitcase always with her that basically carries all her belongings, all her existence even was tense and heartbreaking at times. At the end, it seems she manages to get away from the man, who is not necessarily depicted as a villain here, but also not as a likeable man, but she has to leave the suitcase behind. All that stays for her is her life plus her clothes, plus her fighting spirit. There was one shot that really stayed in the mind for me and that was the wild dramatic camera position when he enters the bus and she is there near the toilet area hiding from him as he walks past her and does not see her. Does not see her right away at least. That was awesome and this shot alone makes me say that I would not object if this film wins the Oscar. Same applies to when she is hiding down there with all the luggage. Really claustrophobic moment. Nicely filmed and this moment emphasizes her desperate situation oh so well. As a consequence, this film is my number-two favorite I guess and the longer I think about it, the more I think it will win and the closer it comes to my actual favorite, the long Italian short film by the Rohrwachers and Cuarón. This one here does not have these big names in the cast or crew, but the one thing these two films have in common are memorable red items. In the other film, it is this awesome cake of course and here it is unsurprisingly the item mentioned in the title. So yeah, fingers crossed one of these two can claim the Oscar trophy on Sunday. And if this one here does not succeed, then this does not mean that you should skip watching it. It is a very interesting watch and I am glad I got to see it.
The film gets better the longer it goes then. We understand she is a really likable character and a huge victim of the entire situation. Her father sold her to another man and she is supposed to marry the latter in Luxembourg and he is there at the airport to pick her up and take her to his home literally right away where the wedding guests are already waiting. Those must be crazy too. Anyway, seeing her try to get away from the man while having this suitcase always with her that basically carries all her belongings, all her existence even was tense and heartbreaking at times. At the end, it seems she manages to get away from the man, who is not necessarily depicted as a villain here, but also not as a likeable man, but she has to leave the suitcase behind. All that stays for her is her life plus her clothes, plus her fighting spirit. There was one shot that really stayed in the mind for me and that was the wild dramatic camera position when he enters the bus and she is there near the toilet area hiding from him as he walks past her and does not see her. Does not see her right away at least. That was awesome and this shot alone makes me say that I would not object if this film wins the Oscar. Same applies to when she is hiding down there with all the luggage. Really claustrophobic moment. Nicely filmed and this moment emphasizes her desperate situation oh so well. As a consequence, this film is my number-two favorite I guess and the longer I think about it, the more I think it will win and the closer it comes to my actual favorite, the long Italian short film by the Rohrwachers and Cuarón. This one here does not have these big names in the cast or crew, but the one thing these two films have in common are memorable red items. In the other film, it is this awesome cake of course and here it is unsurprisingly the item mentioned in the title. So yeah, fingers crossed one of these two can claim the Oscar trophy on Sunday. And if this one here does not succeed, then this does not mean that you should skip watching it. It is a very interesting watch and I am glad I got to see it.
