Nothing is what it seems. Ok, we know that, but ‘I Was Nobody‘ is a short film that defies not only the appearances of a drama built on a strong psychological conflict, but also the conventions of a precise cinematic genre. It is difficult to say what the intention of director Adam Hodge really was (to juggle the expectations of the public or to suddenly transgress genre barriers?), but we are positive that the result is more than surprising. Thus, the relationship between a father and a daughter – the starting point in the narrative – undergoes an unexpected change of context which, just when the viewer was waiting for those rather teary clichés, saves everything from a predictable bittersweet ending. We would do a disservice to anyone who wants to see this short film if we revealed the plot, since the surprise effect is one of its great qualities. We will only say this: a young woman has no other choice than to hospitalize her delusional father, but a discussion between the two completely changes the facts.
The narrative solution proposed by the director doesn’t necessarily favour the credibility of the story, and fans of psychological dramas could feel a bitter taste when the spotlight moves from a recognizable situation to a context that defies the parameters of conventional realism. However, we must see this short film not relying on predetermined patterns, but to some extent, as an experiment that breaks the very strict boundaries between established cinematic formulas. Even if Adam Hodge deceives us from the beginning with an insight into the thoughts of the female character who, through her inner monologue, determines the problem to be tackled, the way in which the father imposes the truth of his own reality within the daughter’s perception proves to be a brilliant and well-manipulated idea. Thus, the complexity of the frames that differentiate the subjective perspectives of the characters, as well as the way in which the animation sequences find a coherence within this diverse project, attest an extremely promising stylistic versatility. Beyond its narrative stakes that shatter the viewer’s expectations, ‘I Was Nobody’ is a short film that excels in its cinematography, while offering us a lesson on how to successfully manipulate the cinematic language.
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