Paradoxically, extreme violent situations sometimes stimulate our deepest human resources. In other words, the inhumanity of some triggers the humanity of others. Perhaps this is the most important message of ‘LLAMADA’, which, beyond the painful insight into the cruelty of the world we live in, speaks of the need for emotional connection of those who experience the tragic imminence of death. Inspired by cases such as Columbine or the terrorist attacks that have shocked the entire world, director Muhammad Pirzada creates a suffocating and heart-breaking project using an effective technique that plays with the imagination of the viewers, to allow them to push the viewing experience to an almost unbearable area. Thus, the short film is conceived as a phone discussion that apparently approaches the theme of the father-daughter relationship dysfunctions, in order to briefly slip into an intense area involving carnage on the other end of the line. The spectator witnesses the reactions of the father talking to his daughter, while the only palpable presence of violence affecting the girl is, for us, purely acoustic. Thus, in the construction of the project, the viewer is confronted only with a sound reality whereby the director activates the subjective imaginary of each viewer who mentally configures their manifestation of the suggested cruelty. We have encountered this strategy in films like ‘Phone Booth’ or, in a “transformed” form, ‘Buried’, but certainly the emotional impact of this short film is unaltered, all the more so as its mainstay is the authenticity of a context that, unfortunately, is a painful reality for many areas of the contemporary world.
Antonio calls his daughter to find out how she feels on her first day of college. But their emotional relationship seems to have already been compromised because of the distance the man has put between himself and his family. However, something tragic is about to happen that will totally change the way the two relate to each other.
The apparent simplicity of the construction of this short film is, in fact, one of its main qualities. And that’s because director Muhammad Pirzada opts for suggestion instead of a visceral visual concreteness, preserving the parameters of a painful authenticity that doesn’t reach an exaggerated emphasis. Likewise, the choice to depict the whole action in a single shot, keeping the “distance” from the characters, has the fascinating ability to transform the viewer not into a completely detached witness, but even into an active participant in this tragedy, fully feeling the cathartic experience of a story inspired by our current social universe. If the greatest purpose of cinema (and of art in general) is still to create strong reactions to “dynamite” the emotional comfort of the viewer, then ‘LLAMADA’ is definitely a short film that deserves our attention.
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