At the end of October, a shocking short film without a performance and without credits was released on BBC Two. The short film showed a lot of masked people following a man through a forest and then hanging him up, accompanied by eerie music and no dialogue.
As it turns out, the short film is the latest work by director Jonathan Glazer (“Sexy Beast”, “Under the Skin”). Finally, it is available online with friendly permission of BBC Films and A24.
The short film titled The Fall was inspired by a poem by Bertolt Brecht, the works of Fransisco Goya and a picture of Eric and Donald Trump Jr. posing on a hunting trip with a dead animal. These inspirations, Glazer said in an interview with Rolling Stone, “were associated with the feeling that we live in a time when reason is under attack and aggressive ideas are on the rise.” The masks of the characters now wear all, advocating the anonymity that is granted to people through online communication and disinformation. “I thought the mask is an expression of how comfortable we can feel when we are anonymous, how comfortable and how awful.”
As irritating and disturbing as the film is, in the end it is not quite nihilistic about the state of the world. Although the fall of the man seems endless, the movie’s final take shows signs of hope.
“Someone recently asked me if we were closer to hell these days, the only answer I could find was,” We’re no closer to hell than heaven, “Glazer said.” The movie is really about it. It’s up to us to decide which direction to go in. It’s in our power, it’s our choice, how we live and how we want to be represented. “
The Fall can now be streamed online.
