Four minutes. That is all it takes for a film to be able to make an impression. To get a message across. To entertain.
Quiet Crossing is a four minute black and white short film directed by Patrik Krivanek which has screened at many film festivals and won a handful of awards.
It is set in 1967 and features a man and a young couple and their young child stowed away in the back of a food delivery truck making an attempt to get across the border in between East Germany and West Germany. The young couple are fleeing because their political views have put them in danger, so it is either this or probable death. They want a life and to be parents to their child. As they are stopped they have to figure out a way to keep their baby quiet or it will mean discovery and execution for them all. What happens is unexpected. Totally.
A film set over 50 years ago which shows that politics and the potential for evil has not changed much over the decades. How the right wing is yet again creating environments ruled over by fear and divisiveness.
How people are still having to flee from unsafe environments. How they should not be seen as to be feared, but helped to achieve the lives they and every one of us deserves. Unfortunately a timeless tale which continues today.
Precious little dialogue here, but it is not needed to tell this story. Effective in its minimalism. Plus that ending! Bravo!