‘Stuck In The Sand‘ is the kind of short film whose action you have seen somewhere before, but the way it is built gives you the same intensity that you felt at first. Kendall Christianson proves, in fact, through this project, not necessarily the intuition with which he chooses a more or less predictable narrative thread, but his artistic talent through which he keeps his spectators breathless. Thus, the characters that make up this fictional universe are schematically constructed, without a background that would give them some more specific features, primarily based on a classic dichotomy: men vs. women. Feminist stakes are not necessarily a priority in the overall equation of the project, but the director somewhat exploits the war of the sexes against the backdrop of a desert space populated by misogynistic characters. It would be risky to guess on our own what the context behind the events we witness is. It would also be just as difficult to see here a metaphor for women’s emancipation in a world that turns them not only into sexual objects but also into weapons or instruments for monstrous entertainment. Best of all, the action must be received precisely as it is presented – as a bloody episode that, although placed in our present, vaguely recalls the universe of Mad Max.
Two men meet in a deserted place to bet on a fight between two women who are their prisoners. Who are these women, and how did they end up in this situation? We don’t really know. Thus, everything takes the form of a cockfight with human characters, in which women have a choice between obeying or retaliating.
