Whiteout

A nail biting one take thriller with a great performance and camera work

A not comfortable short film. A road in night. A couple in a car . In the middle of road - a man. Commentaries of the partners. The not comfortable obstacle and the tries to help him, the argues and the last part. A film easy to define as parable. About different worlds, about options and about the stranger as menace for his only presence . And the choice. Short, just about life.

A couple are driving home on a snowy night when they come across a man standing in the middle of the road. This is where the film starts, and more or less this is where it stays for the majority of the running time. The film is presented in one continuous static filmed from the back seat looking out towards the front window. This framing and steady shot puts the viewer in the scene, with no editing around or breaking up the drama. While the threat of the silent stays forever in our view, the couple get to bickering a bit, and show that maybe they are not as helpful or as selfless as they would like to think.

In the context of this, I thought the ending was mostly very good; I saw a lot of negativity online about it, but for me it worked right up till the very, very end where another intervention is seen, and this intervention seemed less in line with the characters than the decision they had made just seconds prior to that. Despite this it works well, but I wish it had ended 10 seconds earlier than it had.