Today’s ASAD comes to us from Greece. The odd but entertaining :45, a psychological drama.

Note: this film is in Greek. After hitting Play, select CC and turn on English. YouTube is getting much better at handling translation, as evidenced by this film.

Synopsis

Aina finds herself waking from a seemingly endless series of dreams wherein her lover, Nikoe, is killed. She must find a way to save him or be trapped in this perpetul loop.

Review

There was something about this that grabbed me from the initial viewing. While :45 appears to start as merely a run-of-the-mill drama, it quickly changes into something else. It’s like watching a very dark version of Groundhog Day play out in only a few minutes. The title, and I’m only guessing here, is about the 45 seconds that the protagonist finds herself trying to resolve over and over to save the man she loves. Eventually Aina finds herself asking the questions: Do I really love him at all? Should I even try to save him?

Besides the nice twist in the story, :45 has many other good things going for it. Great acting for one. Every actor looks like they put themselves into their respective parts, no matter how limited they may be.

The cinematography is stunning and the editor showed some good choices in my opinion. Not a single frame seems out of place. Even the choice not to show Aina’s lover Nikoe being shot but rather show her reaction as the gunshot goes off makes it more visceral.

Speaking of gunshots, the sound mix is very well done. There were some moments when I almost expected to hear low dialogue levels but was pleasantly surprised to see that the mixer was keeping their eyes on the board.

The story also serves as a reminder about how we might miss those small moments in our lives while looking out at bigger spans of weeks, months, or even years without realizing that some of the most pivotal moments we have last only a few seconds.

What do you think of :45? Leave a comment below.

Information

Genre: Psychological Drama
Country of Origin: Greece
Release Year: 2011
Runtime: 8 mins. 37 secs.
Director: Yannis Bournazos
Cast: Ageliki Karistinou, Konstantinos Yannakopoulos, Iakovos Milonas, Yannis Varkas
YouTube Channel: yiannisb2007
Director’s Website: —

Technical

Camera: RED One
Lenses: —
Edited with: —
Output: —