It’s hard to say what the great quality of a short film like ‘Ingrid‘ is. And this is precisely because its force is not necessarily perceptible on a visible level; it hides in nuances, in fine emotional details, behind the characters’ interaction. Director Raimon Valls Domènech proves both a great talent by exploiting seemingly well-known areas (a failed love story), and also a great courage by choosing a rather… non-narrative script. In other words, the story tackled by this project seems extremely brief, even superficial, but beyond the “she cheated on him” cliché, we find those unspoken silences and words, those moments of naïve despair, those remains of gestures condensing in just a few moments an entire personal history. Such an approach would have been impossible in the absence of some talented actors, this is more than obvious, but also the way in which the director composes that desolate atmosphere of a soul unable to express itself in everyday reality is enough to certify a special sensitivity.
The short film captures a succinct encounter between two (former?) lovers who have not told each other everything yet. Still, things are harder than they seem, and the anger he transferred into his music strikes at his inability to articulate the words in front of the one that broke his heart. Thus begins a mute confrontation, between the insults of a lamentation-song and the mutual embarrassment in which both want to express their own truth. Far from being just an insight into the creative process of a singer for whom music becomes the only space where his words and emotions are concrete, the short film is built on these subtle valences: one the one hand – the inner noise; on the other hand – the infernal silence of a tête-à-tête which bodies desperately try to fill with meaning. Raimon Valls orchestrates with empathy and with an impressive technical precision two inner monologues that burst into both delicate and neurotic glances and movements, following through the lenses of an unhappy duo the friability of interpersonal relationships. ‘Ingrid’ is a short film that doesn’t tell us exceptional stories or truths, but it manages with its atmosphere to fill a great silence with everything that can be more fragile and beautiful in a love story.
Share:
