From Omeleto.
A woman reconnects with her father.
BOSHACK is used with permission from Rakib Erick. Learn more at https://instagram.com/rakiberick.
Several large asteroids are going to hit Western Australia. Amid the chaos, Valerie drives to the remote rural area with a mission: to reconnect with Albert, the father she’s been estranged from for years, and make sure he’s out of harm’s way.
The cabin is ramshackle and rundown, seemingly abandoned. But Albert appears, welcoming Valerie inside. The pair attempts to talk, but their discussion is awkward and wary. But as their conversation becomes strained as they begin to clear the air, the chaos of the world intrudes upon them.
Directed and written by Rakib Erick, this dystopian short blends tense family drama with taut, economical sci-fi thriller. Within the frame of a disintegrating, increasingly lawless world, a father and a daughter reckon with the tatters of their relationship and the pain it has wrought between them. Valerie takes one last chance to save her reclusive, difficult father, but the question looming over the narrative is whether the bond can be repaired, even in the face of dire circumstances.
The storytelling quickly fills in some world-building at the start, and visually, the film leverages the raw Australian setting, with its desolate expanses and rugged terrain, to create a palpable feeling of the edge of civilization. But its focus is on the emotional journey that Valerie has embarked upon, fueled by desperation and perhaps some degree of obligation. Many films about the world ending often pose questions about what we’d do with our limited time left; for Valerie, saving the frayed bond with her parent is what she feels compelled towards.
With a cataclysmic event as a backdrop, Valerie cuts right to the heart of the matter with Albert. Their dialogue is rough, agonized and full of passionate, suppressed emotion boiling to the surface, and the writing weaves in just enough backstory to hint at the abandonment, guilt and regret that exists between father and daughter.
But even with such high stakes, Albert can’t bring himself to leave with his daughter, and actor Sean Roberts Metcalfe’s performance gets at how haunted his lifetime has been — and how he can’t quite forgive himself for his failures, even if Valerie can overlook her anger and resentment in the face of the doomed circumstances. Played by actor Sarah Greenwood with an equally haunted mien and just enough love underneath the resentful desperation, she pleads with Albert to leave with her. One conversation can’t overcome their history so easily, but before she can even press her case, Valerie runs out of time, as danger finally catches up to her.
BOSHACK ends with an eruption of violence, with Albert finally stepping into the role of protective father — a role that he eschewed until almost the very end. Perhaps that gives him some meaning in the face of a breathtakingly realized end, one full of flames, explosions and obliteration. In its total disintegration of the world as we know it, it feels almost metaphorical in its utter destruction. Albert faces it alone as he always has, staring into the distance as he awaits the hand he’s dealt himself.
