The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Shorta

Venice Film Festival 2020: Shorta | Review
11 September 2020
Oliver Johnston
Avatar
Oliver Johnston
11 September 2020

Movie and show review

Oliver Johnston

Shorta

★★★★★

Special event

There’s a timely eeriness to the events and themes masterfully depicted in Shorta, screening as part of the International Critics’ Week at the 2020 Venice International Film Festival. Alongside COVID-19, the year will be remembered for the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department, and the subsequent momentum his untimely passing lent to the Black Lives Matter movement. Given the time it takes to make a feature film, the production of Shorta predated the horrific death of Floyd, and yet there’s something downright chilling about watching a movie in 2020 that opens with an ethnic minority being choked as he’s arrested by caucasian police officers. Its overt topicality is a coincidence, although this doesn’t diminish the visceral impact of the picture.

As Denmark reels from the apparent brutality of the arrest that left Talib Ben Hassi (Jack Pedersen) on life support, police officers Mike (Jacob Lohmann) and Jens (Simon Sears) go out on patrol, where a routine vehicle inspection draws them into the ghettos of Svalegården, a place where racial tensions are threatening to explode. Mike’s ingrained racism quickly causes the situation to extravagantly deteriorate. Fire, meet petrol.

The partnering of the empathetic Jens with the racist Mike creates a familiar good cop/bad cop trope, which although well-worn, creates an immediate accessibility for a film that has something on its mind, however broad the work’s social commentary might be. Any familiarity is cleverly deceptive, notably the feature’s opening sequence showing a police helicopter observing Svalegården’s primarily Middle Eastern population while tense, moody music plays. It’s a scene that wouldn’t look out of place in a Michael Bay movie.

Although Jens and Mike could easily be thinly sketched stereotypes, Sears and Lohmann give them peaks and valleys, aided by the layers evident in the script from co-directors Frederik Louis Hviid and Anders Ølholm. The performances are uniformly excellent and the pacing of the picture is fiendishly effective. The narrative comes in alternating beats, meaning any lull or moment of reflection is rapidly superseded by action that is both dazzling and distressing. Shorta (which is an Arabic word meaning police) is a police thriller that is undeniably thrilling, with a ripped-from-the-headlines relevance presented in a slick, first-rate package.

★★★★★

Oliver Johnston

Shorta does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Venice Film Festival 2020 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Venice Film Festival website here.

 

Related Itemsreview

More in Film festivals

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

“I think I’m kind of a drug addict for image and sound coming together! I’m always putting images to sound and getting high”: An interview with Hlynur Pálmason, director of Godland

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Watcher

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

Resurrection

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

Sharp Stick

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

Leyla’s Brothers: An interview with Saeed Roustayi

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Plan 75: An interview with director Chie Hayakawa

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Falcon Lake: An interview with director Charlotte Le Bon

Selina Sondermann
Read More

“How to make a genuine portrait of life”: An interview with the stars of Leila’s Brothers

Selina Sondermann
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Oliver Johnston

Shorta

★★★★★

Special event

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Midsummer Mechanicals at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “Theatre is totally unique… there’s simply nothing else quite like it”: An interview with Sir Howard Panter as the new cast of Jersey Boys opens at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • What Josiah Saw
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • South Facing Festival: Richard Ashcroft and his band were on impressive form from start to finish
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Ed Fringe 2022: Hungry
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Eiffel
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Five Days at Memorial
    ★★★★★
    apple
  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • South Facing Festival: Richard Ashcroft and his band were on impressive form from start to finish
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Five Days at Memorial
    ★★★★★
    apple
  • South Facing Festival: Richard Ashcroft and his band were on impressive form from start to finish
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Jersey Boys bring on a new cast at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • Prey
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Venice Film Festival 2020: Genus Pan (Lahi, Hayop) | Review
Venice Film Festival 2020: In Between Dying (Səpələnmiş ölümlər arasında) | Review