From Omeleto.
A family rides a rickshaw.
RICKSHAW is used with permission from Raphael Hernandez. Learn more at https://instagram.com/raphael_hrndz.
Paul is celebrating his eighth birthday with a night out with his parents. They’ve taken him to the theater, and for a special treat, Paul begs to take a ride on a rickshaw instead of taking a cab home. Reluctantly, his parents agree.
The ride starts festive enough, but then it turns disquieting and even somewhat dangerous when an immigrant child assails the family during the ride. The child is relentless in his demands and Paul’s parents are unnerved and angry at the interruption to Paul’s special occasion. Paul’s reaction hangs in the balance as his eyes open to the larger forces at work in the world.
Directed and written by Raphael Hernandez, this visually striking yet perceptive short drama is essentially about a young boy’s shift in perspective during a vivid yet disturbing incident, one that begins to enlarge his understanding of the world. It takes the festive color and movement of a child’s birthday, full of brightness, movement and dazzle, and slowly transforms it into something disorienting and almost surreal, leaving a memorable impression on both Paul and the viewers, who must then make sense of the chaos.
The film begins with Paul and his parents coming out of the theater, relaxed and happy, as they are approached by a rickshaw driver, with a cart festooned with neon string lights and decorations. A ride seems like a perfect ending to a fun birthday, so Paul’s parents acquiesce. But that ride’s joyfulness is disrupted when an immigrant child takes advantage of a stop to beg them to buy some of his lights. When the child refuses to be brushed off, the film shifts registers into something more suspenseful and almost thriller-like in how it builds tension and conflict.
It’s distressing for Paul’s family and viewers to be pressed upon so relentlessly, and fascinating in how the storytelling weaves the threat of violence — an accident or some kind of lashing out — into what had been an enjoyable experience. But it never loses sight of Paul’s emotions, especially his bewilderment at how his parents react and his empathy for a child who is likely his age but of a very different station in life. As Paul, young performer Charlie Archer has an innate naturalness and sensitivity, able to convey the bright immediacy of a child’s joy and excitement but also a dawning melancholy as he comes up against the world’s hidden workings.
Arresting and visceral, RICKSHAW is so visually vivid and quick-moving that it’s startling to realize how little dialogue it has. Most of its meaning and impact is conveyed in clashes of color and sound, which also convey the clash of class and background that Paul faces. He comes to realize some of the injustices of the world, but more importantly, how it’s overlooked or not talked about. By the film’s end, a birthday celebration becomes a bittersweet memory as a young boy takes a step towards a complex, heartbreaking understanding of the world.
