Sharfik

This review is part of an ongoing series of reviews I am writing about the nominees for the Beneath the Earth Film Festival, all of which are short films. For more info, go here.

I was initially eager to get stuck into this animated short as I usually automatically assume that a fair bit of time and enthusiasm has gone into animated projects, and that the filmmakers will have something different to say (or a different way to say the usual things). Unfortunately, Sharfik kind of disappointed me. The short is a dialogue-free depiction of one family slowly falling apart during the WWII seige of Stalingrad, and focuses on the family's youngest son as he struggles to survive ( though he doesn't really have any understanding of what's happening).

There's a universalness to this sort of subject, and I guess that's why it's completely free of dialogue. The use of a child's perspective is obviously designed to push the viewer's emotional buttons in a big way... it seems to be very much influenced by the depressing anime opus Grave of the Fireflies (if only Grave of the Fireflies had been this short!) Alas, Sharfik isn't up to scratch in terms of that film's quality, with the animation and camera movements seeming amateurish and a little too close to Adobe Flash for my tastes.

I think I would've liked more context to the story rather than long, empty stretches of suffering. I can see what the filmmakers were aiming for but I guess I'm just numb and cynical towards the message due to overexposure to the subject matter and the film's unexciting execution.

DIRECTOR: Karina Gazizova
WRITER/SOURCE: Karina Gazizova

RELATED TEXTS
- See Grave of the Fireflies for a similar story told in almost the exact same way, only much better.
- Karina Gazizova previously worked as an animator on the TV series Good Vibes and the TV children's game show BrainSurge.