Short film review | Calf

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Calf finds a young girl facing a tough moral dilemma. Here’s our review of writer-director Jamie O’Rourke’s short film that’s playing at HollyShorts Film Festival.

Writer-director Jamie O’Rourke’s Calf is a difficult short film to categorise. It’s a drama tinted with real world horror and strong elements of a thriller. It’s melancholic and terrifying, often at the same time. It’s a film I haven’t been able to shake for days now, which I hope is a testament to just how singular O’Rourke’s short is.

A mother sends her daughter Cáit (Isabelle Connolly) to fetch her dad from the fields. As she finds her father, Cáit is faced with a horrific sight and is forced to make a decision no one should be forced to make.

Read more: Short film review | Bill

O’Rourke refuses to tell us exactly what, if anything, happened to Cáit in the past to inform her split-second decision out in the fields. Instead, we’re left to wonder what we’re not privy to. Are Cáit’s actions in order to free her from something, or is it pure panic?

These events are juxtaposed with the birth of a new calf on the farm. Cáit’s mum warns her not to try and deliver it alone, it’s too dangerous and she should let the adults help her. Yet, Cáit has been forced to do an awful lot of growing up just now. The dramatic tension in Calf is strong and palpable. This is a rare film that exists not only in the moment, on the screen in front of us, but outside of it, lingering in the mind for hours, if not days.

Visually, O’Rourke’s film is stunning and it’s hard to find anything to criticise about Calf. It doesn’t overload its narrative with too much, but refuses to undercook its story either. This is powerful, beautiful filmmaking.

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