Graffiti

Shock, Awe, Amazement, and Hope colored Edgar's face as he stared at four simple letters. ANNA. Adrenaline courses through his body as he excitedly rushes over to the wall to write his own name. Graffiti is a beautiful short film that encapsulates the beauty in chaos. This film features a man named Edgar living in the chaotic wasteland of Chernobyl seven years after the nuclear tragedy that claimed thousands of lives. The film displays a conversation made through graffiti on a wall between the protagonist Edgar and an unknown woman known to be Anne, and demonstrates the beauty in a simple series of messages. This film proves how important companionship is to human beings, and how being left alone can cause one to lose their sanity.

Released in 2015, this film was one of the first to actually be shot in the wasteland of Chernobyl. After testing for radiation in certain locations, they found a few areas where filming was safe enough. Being in the actual setting itself really enhances the effect of the horror in being the only one. This film won 16 awards, and was nominated for 3 others, with notable ones being the Filmmaker international film festival (2016) and the Best Shorts Competition (2016).

This film pulls readers in through the unusual setting, as well as the eerie silence of being alone. The pure simplistic beauty of a graffiti conversation, and the grand reveal of the wall covered in graffiti is extraordinary, and juxtaposes the feeling of loneliness with connection to another. It is a film that is relatable, and gives viewers a longing feeling of missing their loved ones. Most importantly, it teaches us to not take the ones we love for granted. On the contrary, this film has a few holes that leave viewers with questions. It is very implausible that Edgar was able to survive out in a radiated filled wasteland for 7 years, especially with the lack of edible, non-contaminated food. However, the positives heavily outweigh the missing questions and links, and makes this film well worth a watch for anyone that places large emphasis on companionship.

Greetings again from the darkness. Here's yet another post-apocalyptic story, and it even borrows "a boy and his dog" from I Am Legend (2007). However, within minutes, we are drawn in by the stillness of the setting, and the foreboding, snow-covered surroundings that this singular character explores each day.

Director Lluis Quilez co-wrote the screenplay with Javier Guillen, and connects us to the young man as he, "seven years after the incident", trudges in the snow between abandoned buildings. He checks for radiation while scavenging for food and useful items. He marks each building as safe or not, and even sends out pleas for help … just in case. His tool of choice is a can of black spray paint.

One day he is startled as the daily trek brings him back to his lair with the name "Anna" spray pointed on a wall sign. Suddenly he has hope for companionship and the possible end of loneliness. Over the next few days we learn much about the two teenagers. Anna is 19 years old, and Edgar is 17. In fact, the wall exchanges play like a post-apocalyptic version of our modern day dating apps. Personal information is exchanged and a relationship and bond is developed through only the painted exchanges.

The imagery and visuals of the film are top notch, and the message seems to be that hope is a driving force not just for characters in survival stories, but for all of us. Is it possible that the hope of personal connection may even be a stronger motivator than survival itself?

Anna came into Edgar's home several times without either him or his dog sensing her presence. Why didn't she reveal herself earlier when she could see he was harmless? Did Edgar's isolation drive him to imagine Anna's existence and subconsciously act out her side of the conversation?

Imagine that for most of your life, you have been completely and entirely alone. Imagine that you have spent this time desperately attempting to survive. Imagine you were doing so in a place that was once familiar to you. In the short film Graffiti, directed by Lluís Quílez , this concept is explored. Although it was filmed entirely in Chernobyl, almost forty years after the nuclear disaster which left hundreds of thousands of people dead or displaced, Graffiti is set in a dystopian, yet not completely unfamiliar setting. The decaying and decrepit buildings, along with the absence of high key lighting in many shots, enforces a feeling of desolation and dread.

Edgar, played by Oriol Pla, lives in a building void of light, with only his dog to keep him company. Egars life has been spent, at least for the past seven years, checking buildings for what we can assume are dangerously high levels of radiation. He carries a can of black spray paint, which he uses to mark the buildings as safe or unsafe. Instead of using a more conventional system, Edgar either marks the building with a circle, if it is safe, or an asterisk, if it is unsafe.

Edgars life is suddenly interrupted, when he discovers "ANNA" spray painted on a wall in his home. Shocked, he decides to reply to her message, and they continue to communicate indirectly, despite Edgars desperation to see Anna.

Despite her existence never being confirmed, Edgar becomes completely enthralled with the prospect of another person. He repeatedly traces her name, and calls out to her, yearning to finally be able to confirm that she does indeed exist. The audience roots for him, as he has been deprived of any sort of genuine human connection for years.

By the end of the film, Anna's existence is not confirmed. The ending is ambiguous, which allows the viewer to contemplate the film, long after viewing it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this short film. The cinematography was incredible, to to mention the setting (Chernobyl), which definitely reinforces the horror of the situation. Personally, I would rate this film 9/10.

It is so damn hard to review Short Films for me. I mean, it's by and large fun to watch them. The challenge lies in trying to generate a lot to say about not a lot of movie.

Such is the case with the half-hour short "Graffiti". First of all, this is a production that extends a good ten minutes beyond what is reasonably requisite in order to effectively tell the story here. That narrative being a guy who is not certain if he is the last human on earth seven years after an apocalyptic "incident", apparently of a catastrophically nuclear nature.

Director and Co-Writer/Producer Lluis Quilez gives us far to many shots establishing that this despondent and solitary man, Edgar (Oriol Pla, resembling a young John Stamos, who himself resembles the actual PRESENT-DAY John Stamos), has been sentenced to an existence of desperately lonely and empty days. And the somber mood generated by Arnau Bataller's morose musical accompaniment supplies a more than sufficient cue that we as an audience should be filled to overflowing with feelings saturated with the somber and serious. Edgar is continuously shown bearing the brunt of another brutally harsh winter entrapped within a completely gutted and empty city while trudging about in a joyless effort to determine if the radiation levels in the dilapidated structures threatening to crumble down on top of him are safe for entry (Pripyat, the Ukrainian city most egregiously impacted by the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown crisis of 1986, provides the primary setting). After a few of these grimly stark scenes we do come to get it, Mr. Quilez. Edgar's life is the total sh--s and there is little hope that it's ever gonna get any better. In fact, it's an absolute wonder that this poor fellow is even still motivated to remain clinging to life at all, such as it is. Which I suppose touches on the apparent theme of the innately powerful longing for human touch alive in us all. But still, there's really no point in beating the set-up to this eternal truth to death, is there?

So as not to potentially spoil what I found to be a nearly entirely nonsensical and unsatisfying denouement, suffice to say that Edgar may or may not have discovered a reason to carry on.

But by this time "Graffiti" has carried on for far longer than has our inspiration to truly care.