Death frightens us all. But there are some cases where death can trigger a funny moment, especially for those who are passionate about macabre humour. ‘Leakage‘ is an unpredictable short film that respects the narrative progression of a farce by using black humour as the main mechanism for obtaining a reaction from the viewer. And it totally succeeds! Constructing a project as an “offense” brought to certain conversational taboos in which the depiction of social hypocrisy becomes the main purpose, director Marc Eikelenboom starts from a seemingly insignificant context and suddenly slides into an acidic epic thread that illustrates the conversational imbalances hiding the great and small interhuman incompatibilities. Without pushing the short film to a more complex area from a narrative point of view, the director makes in his short film a concentrated cutting up from the reality around us that reveals a fragment of the daily absurdity in which the conflict between the rich and the poor reaches the peak of cynicism.
When two neighbours complain about the poor construction of the building in which they live, the manager tries to avoid finding a solution. In fact, the problem of this leak in the roof is no longer important when imminent death enters the equation.
Beyond the obvious qualities of the cinematography and editing, the great merit of this project lies in its “counterpointing” narrative construction, which is based on an abrupt eventual turn, completely turning upside down the apparent conventional calmness. The attention of director Marc Eikelenboom, manifested at the same time through maintaining authenticity in terms of dialogue and through finding the ultimate element of surprise, efficiently sets around an apparently unspectacular conflict an interaction that is progressively dynamized, in order to attain a “bombastic” and “naughty” ending that cynically highlights the characters’ pettiness. Moving away from the conventional comedy structure, ‘Leakage’ is a refreshing short film that, in fact, illustrates some painful truths about human nature.
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