Satsuma

Two children and left at home with one of their grandmothers while the parents go out for the afternoon. The girl teases the boy to do more and more daring things while the Granny dozes unaware in the house. However childish games tend to lead to unimagined harm.

Shown as part of the Birmingham Film Festival this short was one of eight to be shown that were produced by Screen West Midlands and were predominately set in the Midlands using Midlands based actors and crew. I knew nothing of the plot of this film before it started and I know little of the theme it was exploring even now that I've seen it. The film appears to be escalating to a peak with one more extreme childish dare after another and in a way it does build to disaster.

But why? What was the significance of what happened? Even more importantly what was the significance of the wasp theme that ran through the film? Was it implying that the girl herself was like the wasp's nest - if you play around with her you'll get stung in the end.

However it moves too fast and it isn't believable. The main failing is the lack of character development in the girl - she doesn't bring out any character well and as a result any meaning we are expected to draw from her. It's a shame as I felt that I had missed the point and part of the fault for this must rest with the delivery.

Overall this is interesting but I felt it failed to deliver it's message. It didn't build and the lack of character development was a weakness.