Ausreisser

An unemployed Hamburg architect on the day of a job interview is way laid by a strange child at his door who wants him to take on parenting duties. He attempts to avoid the absurdity but the child wears him down and he is soon very much involved.

This short film about a mysterious child inveigling his way into a man's life one morning and disrupting his whole life in the process has a nice comic start due to the charm of the enigmatic child and the perplexed adult. After losing the job without getting an interview in the film's best scene the film bogs down in seriousness then dissipates into phantasmagoria to tie the loose ends together.

While it remains visually sharp throughout and is well acted the film's turn of events is too sharp and the story inevitably roles over on its side.

A wise crafted film. Reminding an adventure of summers from youth. A lonely architect going to work is front a six years old boy demanding to him to go to school. The man is called daddy and his entire day is dominated by the presence of kid. You suppose the motif of absence of mother and, indeed, you are right.

But the twist proposes not exactly an answer but a serious dose of realism about men living out of responsabilities and discover of fatherhood nuances.

No doubts, the run on hospital halls is little forced but this aspect of fairy tale or parapsychological explanation not works so bad.

And the red boots of young Iuri , like the lovely Maximilian Werner, the beautiful performance of.peter jordan as victim of circomstances are just precious virtues of this moving short film.

"The Runaway" (Ausreißer)" seems at first as if it's going to be that tried and true tired story that goes at least as far back as Shirley Temple of the adorable moppet melting the heart of a rigid grump.

But the director Ulrike Grote does get us caught up in the frustrations of the guy having one of those annoying days where everything seems to be going wrong.

The turning point is when Linus Foerster's script has a sudden revelation about the connections between the characters that makes us think we are moving at least into Ruth Rendell mystery territory and maybe into M. Night Shyamalan or Ambrose Bierce twists, but with even more humanity.

The lead actor is key in making us believe how reflections about the collision of his past and present change him. There was some disagreement in the audience about exact concluding plot points and realism vs. magic realism, but any interpretation seemed to satisfy each audience member.

The Hamburg locales are used quite beautifully.

It is very possible that the film's Oscar chances could be hurt by the awful English subtitles that eschew capitalization and punctuation.

I viewed this film as part of a commercial screening of the five Oscar nominated Live Action shorts.

I came across this film on a compilation DVD of several other Oscar nominated shorts. This was by far my favorite. It felt like a complete story. It took me somewhere and left me with something to think about. As a big fan of David Lynch, I prefer to be challenged and participate in the storytelling and perhaps come to my own conclusion about "what it all means". This film afforded me that opportunity as short films rarely do. I was initially surprised that this great little piece didn't win the Oscar, but perhaps it was too good... and maybe this way the filmmakers will find themselves in better company (Kubrick, Hitchcock, Coens, etc.).