¾ The Leap
(28:03)This 2015 short film was presented by Dust in 2017.
This film... seems to be set in a dystopian future. There's a planet called New Earth, which apparently just about everyone wants to move to, but of course not everyone can. The trip (referred to as "the leap") is extremely expensive. So, there are cartels that smuggle people onto transport ships. And there's an agency, the Inter-Planetary Migration Administration (IPMA) that does all it can to prevent this. At the start of the film, in 2069, an IPMA task force stops a bunch of illegal migrants by shooting them indiscriminately. There are few survivors. I was thinking the film would be a commentary on draconian immigration policies in the real world, and perhaps it is. (In fact it seems prescient, now, as the IPMA reminds me of what ICE has become since Trump took office.) But I soon forgot to think about that, as it becomes a more personal story about an IPMA agent named Reiss.
Reiss was one of the agents who took part in the massacre in 2069, but the story mostly takes place fifteen years later. (I guess the IPMA is trying to do things more humanely at this time than it had in the past, though there's still widespread criticism of the agency.) Reiss could have made the leap, himself, years ago, but for some reason (which is never explained), he hasn't. It's clear, though, that he has become disaffected with his job, and still has nightmares about the massacre all those years ago. He copes by drinking, and by hiring a prostitute to come to his home. On the night the story is set, his usual doesn't show up, instead being replaced by a new girl named Jade. It doesn't take long for him to accept the change and start to get on with things, but then something makes him stop. We'll learn why, through later flashbacks, though it didn't really surprise me. I don't want to say much more about the plot, but things do get complicated, and dangerous, and there is some violence before a relatively happy ending. Although I was left with at least one unanswered question.
Anyway, I appreciated the film both as social commentary on the present and as a futuristic sci-fi/action/drama story. But what impressed me most is that it really feels like a "real" movie, not just a short film. Granted, it's a bit longer than most of the short films I watch, but it's still a more complete and engrossing narrative than I'm used to from shorts of any length.