From Omeleto.
A woman’s dog is dead.
BIBI’S DOG IS DEAD is used with permission from Shervin Kermani. Learn more at https://instagram.com/bibisdogisdead.
Bibi’s dog Chopper just died. Distressed and in need of support, she impulsively reaches out to her ex-boyfriend Adam, who loved Chopper. In her grief, she hopes to find some comfort in familiarity with someone who cared for Chopper as much as she did.
When she reconnects with Adam, he is still the abrasive, hot-tempered and self-absorbed person. She attempts to reignite their bond and connection but discovers that things ended with Adam for a reason — and that she still has some work to do when it comes to dealing with her own difficult emotions.
Directed by Shervin Kermani from a script co-written by Bryn McAuley (who also plays Bibi), this wild and farcical short comedy puts a darkly whimsical spin on its thorny emotional themes of grief, attachment and the complexities of past relationships. Charting the attempts of an emotionally chaotic woman as she reaches out to an ex during a moment of crisis, it veers wildly from one extreme to another, creating a wild ride of a short film that lands in a memorably outlandish conclusion.
The narrative’s storyline is simple, structured as Bibi’s phone call to Adam. But within this seemingly simple encounter, the storytelling embroiders all kinds of embellishments, segues and detours as Bibi chats, illuminating what could be moments of imagination or memory. The line between reality and imagination isn’t clear, however, blurred in part with the jumbled, excitable editing rhythms.
Being inside Bibi’s reality is like being in an emotional funhouse, a feeling set in part by the film’s distinctive visual sense, which is both vividly colorful, slightly artificial and ominous at times, with darkly saturated colors and pillowy shadows. Sometimes the pacing is choppy and frenetic; sometimes it feels almost sinister in its few but marked pauses.
The storytelling’s free-wheeling nature captures Bibi’s erratic state perfectly, as does actor Bryn McAuley’s committed and bold performance. Bibi is an extreme character, but McAuley plays all the wild highs and lows of Bibi’s emotions with a fierce sincerity, playing off actor Mishka Thebaud’s judgmental and hot-headed voice performance with equal intensity. The pair are a toxic combination, though we don’t quite glimpse the depths of their romantic insanity until the final section of BIBI’S DOG IS DEAD, which reveals just how far Bibi will go to get the emotional connection she craves. It’s a bravura finish to a memorable, almost feral cinematic ride, which manages to be both a farce about the emotional carnage of an ex and a cautionary tale about not letting go.
