We know that people and their stories make the essence of a film, but there are certain cases where the protagonist slightly defies this rule. This is what happens with the short film ‘Broken Circle‘ in which it is not the history and personal drama of a couple that becomes the project’s core, but the house that the two “humans” fill with their emotions. Aiming, on the one hand, to concentrate the experience of some characters in a very short time, to capture the essence of their humanity, and, on the other hand, to challenge the conventional narrative demands of a story that otherwise may not be extremely original, director Dicle Ozcer creates an experiment as succinct as it is exciting. Thus, despite the actions fragmentarily captured by the camera, despite the narrative thread constructed rather as a succession of minimalist cinematic flashes, despite the fact that the protagonists do not exceed the level of some fairly general portraits, the short film has a remarkable emotional impact.
Therefore, the story doesn’t have an elaborate structure, rendering the joys and tragedies of a young couple that the house where they live silently watches over them, but it is precisely in this external “gaze” that all the energy of the project is centered on. Technically, the short film is built out of fluid, dynamic frames, which flow in an apparent galloping continuity linking the essential moments of the “human” characters in a suggestive stream of time. The temporal cut-out is almost precisely orchestrated, while the framing respects the exigencies of that empathic, discreet “gaze” that, at the same time, keeps the distance and is part of the intimacy of the characters. Through these details, Dicle Ozcer manages the performance of giving an unexpectedly tender aura to a story that, apparently, does not exceed an unspectacular approach, investing not only the characters, but also the film itself with a special sensitivity. This subtle editing makes the sensation after watching the project stronger, in fact, much stronger than if the story of those characters had been told differently. ‘Broken Circle’ is the perfect example of good coordination of an ingenious idea with an intelligent directorial perspective.
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