Pause
“Pause” is a short film that revolves around a family who live in a town right as a nuclear crisis hits. This short film offers some insight on how one might deal with such of an event in a thoughtful manner. With a wonderfully shot piece with a lot of neat camera tricks to add some unexpected emotions, I was thoroughly impressed with this short film.
The film opens on a dad driving his vehicle in a neighborhood presumably from work, only to witness his other neighbors gathering their belongings in a hurry. He turns the radio on only to find out it’s a nationwide alert of a nuclear attack. The dad rushes home to find his family watching the news. What do you in this situation? How would you react and try to keep your family calm in such a crisis? Do you run away when you already know your fate or do you stand by one another and try to keep calm and pause, loving the moment for allowing an opportunity to connect and be a family one last time? What this family decides to do is no surprise and it’s quite endearing the way it is executed.
Instead of relying on heavy exposition and dialogue between the characters when they become reminiscent about their times together through these flashbacks that — from a parent’s perspective — are quite touching and heartfelt. They are moments you wouldn’t ever want to have to come across your mind in such a dire circumstance. The memories each person has says a lot about the individual having them. In a way, we get the sense of who this family is and what kind of lives they lived before this nuclear crisis.
My favorite thing about this short film is the flashbacks. The way they are shot and stylized really added an impact to the overall product that I really didn’t expect on my initial viewing. And an even more interesting element the filmmakers added to the flashbacks is the fact the perspective we see them from is literally from the point of view of whoever is having it. The music really helps bring out the rawness of each memory as well. It felt sentimental and organic.
The direction of this was really fast paced and the director wanted to make something crystal clear: spend time with your loved ones the same way you would any other day despite a nuclear crisis. The beginning is really intense and the ending had a punch. I’m not a parent, yet just putting myself in the shoes of being a parent, this short film really hit me in the gut. I cannot imagine being in that situation and trying to keep my cool.
If you like apocalyptic scenarios that force you to reconcile with your own reasoning, then check this out. The flashbacks alone are a reason to really enjoy this short film. In a climate of paranoia that we live in today, this was a nice (and really depressing) reminder that we may have to face these questions one day ourselves.
