A young woman who just lost her job is being left by her boyfriend due to unknown reasons. All of a sudden she wakes up on the floor. When she stands up and tries to open the window, something strange happens: matter from the window sticks to her hand. As the matter expands and she copes with the new reality the viewer finds out her true story.
Victor Velasco’s short film ‘The Other Side’ mixes elements of sci-fi, action drama and experimental. The theme is death: ’Death isn’t much of anything in the end. We make such a big deal out if it but up close it’s nothing. Just a body without life… nothing more.’, the woman says. But what exactly is director and writer Victor Velasco trying to say by this? The woman obviously continues to exist and therefore what he might be referring to is that death is an abandonment of the body by ‘life’. The director is demystifying death as a phenomena of spiritual rebirth and is casting a rather linear perception over it. Reality continues but only different and death is in fact the process of ‘naturalisation’ in accordance with the new reality. That’s what actually happens with the female character in ‘The Other Side’ – the new reality, her new nature is taking over bit by bit.
Another interesting idea is that the woman learns how to control the new matter and how to give it different shapes. Death in Victor Velsaco’s perception is unlimited and malleable and should not be regarded with fear. This explains the ‘mundane’ feeling one gets about the ‘happening’ of death after watching his film, as this much feared phenomena loses its gravity.
The title of the film also has a certain amount of satire attached to it: ‘The Other Side’ – which can mean not only the place one travels after passing on but can also suggest the other side of reality – as if flipping a coin – or it could also be ironical: there is no other side but just one reality with which one needs to constantly learn how to cope with.
Victor Velasco’s short film is strange and intriguing but nevertheless original, entertaining and well done.
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