"What's the trouble Titsiana, why is it that all the problems in this store seem to happen around you?"
Have you ever been shopping in a supermarket and heard a checkout operator call for service over the speaker phone, only to have the speakers let out an ear piercing squeal? That's the sort of thing that happens to the misfortunate main character of this short film, Titsiana.
She is a dispirited girl who works in a suburban budget supermarket (the now defunct Franklins chain) and is bored with the routine tasks she's required to do. She has the boss from hell, and the other checkout chicks love nothing more than making fun of her. She dreams of having a little respect, and no doubt having a completely different job. She wishes she was more popular and dreams that her co-worker 'Chubbers' would notice her in a different light. She fails to see that she'd probably achieve all of this if she got rid of her awful moustache!
Every now and then she lets her mind wander from repetitive supermarket tasks and escapes into her own musical world, where she sings and dances around as if she were the star of a musical. This brings a smile to her usual cheerless face.
At only 11 minutes in length, this short film is filled with plenty of humour (much at the expense of Titsiana) along with the underlying sadness of the main character. There are a couple of funny incidents that are typical in a supermarket, which earn big laughs. The songs used were original and surprisingly good, they work really well even though each one is quite brief. The only recognizable face in this for me was Aussie actress Sophie Lee, as the nasty Francine Pickles.
Titsiana Booberini became a success story at film festivals around the world, screening on opening night at New York, Colorado, Telluride and Robert Redford's world famous Sundance in 1997. Australian director Robert Luketic has made the huge leap from this, his final year project at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, to directing a Hollywood feature film, the box-office smash 'Legally Blonde' and signing a 3-picture deal with Miramax.
If the premise of this was to be expanded into a full-blown feature film, as is planned, there would have to be plenty of new ideas added, as there would just not be enough material here to work with. Titsiana's escapism into the world of song reminded me a lot of "Dancer In The Dark", the best film at Cannes in 2000 by Lars Von Trier. However this is a funny and enjoyable as a short film, an exceptional piece of work from a promising Aussie director, who has shown if you are good enough, you can go all the way in the world of film-making. It would be great to see him direct a feature film from a script he has written himself one day.
