Short Film - Loose Fish
From the We Built A World segment of the London Film Festival Digital Library, Steve Taylor-Bryant caught Loose Fish...
Loose Fish was a strange film for me. It sort of told a story I may be interested in, a young boy named Ismail in Morocco who is short of money so gets a job on a fishing boat but, aside from a few brief scenes of that. the film didn’t really have any depth. In fact it left me with more questions than I am comfortable with a film leaving me, if I have to work this hard to fill in the gaps what is the point? You don’t know why Ismail is there at the port or why he is needing money, yes it would be easy to guess but maybe some context or character explanation would be nice, and when he finally has some money he disappears on his friends stolen motorbike. Why did he hide the bike so far away from where it was needed? If it were done for the riding off into the sunset scene, I would understand but his bike journey continues over the closing credits so where is he going? Why?
What could have been a great insight into a lifestyle I will never lead in a country I am unlikely to ever visit just seemed wasted here. Maybe it was trying to fit some beautiful scenery into the short film format along with Ismail and perhaps a longer format would tell a better tale? I do not know, but I do feel a little cheated and I do not like that feeling at the end of a film. At the end of a screening I want to feel educated, or entertained, and if I have not liked a film for some reason, I want to have a strong opinion as to why it did not resonate. At the end of Loose Fish, I just felt like I did not care.
What could have been a great insight into a lifestyle I will never lead in a country I am unlikely to ever visit just seemed wasted here. Maybe it was trying to fit some beautiful scenery into the short film format along with Ismail and perhaps a longer format would tell a better tale? I do not know, but I do feel a little cheated and I do not like that feeling at the end of a film. At the end of a screening I want to feel educated, or entertained, and if I have not liked a film for some reason, I want to have a strong opinion as to why it did not resonate. At the end of Loose Fish, I just felt like I did not care.
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