EXODUS – Short Film Review

British writer, director and producer Jordan Barrett offers up EXODUS (2011), a new dramatic short film starring James Hedley and Lawson Hind. Barrett, whose previous credits include the short films PER MARE, PER TERRAM (writer/director/producer) and ASH WEDNESDAY (writer/producer), delivers a sharp sliver of a story that has the potential to be an even more intense feature film, with an ending as appropriately abrupt as it’s beginning.

EXODUS opens much like an episode of a J.J. Abrams television series. The audience is thrown into the middle of Jacob’s (James Hedley) current dilemma, as confused and disoriented as the character himself. Jonathan Armandary’s score is powerful and dramatic, building suspense… and then goes silent, only to be broken a moment later by the harsh, jarring static of a mysterious walkie talkie left with Jacob in the small, enclosed room.

Barrett’s story, only 14:33 in length, stops short of providing any significant depth on the surface. EXODUS, instead, strives to propose an ethical question for the audience to answer themselves, moreover than a clearly defined narrative. Could you choose between the life of a stranger (Lawson Hind) and the life of a loved one? Barrett presents a rare, but horrifying glimpse into a mortal choice that any random human being could have forced upon them against their own will.

EXODUS packs a daunting punch of pending doom, a fear for the outcome, regardless of its final nature. Whatever path Jacob chooses, his life will never be the same, forever haunted by guilt and shame. This tone is reinforced by Scott Coulter’s cinematography is clearly a challenge as EXODUS takes place in a single, tightly enclosed space with a complete lack of natural lighting. As a creative team, Coulter and Barrett prove they can excel at thinking outside the box, even when literally confined to working within a concrete box.

EXODUS recently played at the Inspire Film Festival on Sunday, June 12th, 2011.

Check out the official EXODUS website at www.Exodus.com or “Like” EXODUS on Facebook.