THIRST (2010)

Rated: Unrated

Genre: Thriller/Suspense/Short

Directed By: Pushpak Jain

Starring: Abhijeet Rajput, Shashank Bharadwaj

This movie is disturbing, for a few reasons. It is just under 12 minutes of two guys wandering around a barren wasteland, with no real dialogue. We are given no back story, whatsoever. The first half of the movie is full of glorified pan-shots, in which the actors are walking.

Then, just over six minutes in, something happens… action is introduced. One man is down to his very last sip of water. Right before he can drink it, the second man attacks him. A small scuffle breaks out, and neither man gets the water. They decide to improvise. What follows is one of the weirdest scenes I’ve ever seen: The two man take turns smashing each other in the hand with a large rock, and drinking each others’ tears and blood. The last shot is both men, dead, covered in blood.

The direction is not great, but it is good. The actors were faced with the difficult task of telling a story without words. The only real issue I could find with this film was the editing and sound, but, for a student film, it is not bad at all. The very end of the movie has a warning about wasting water, turning the entire experience into a threatening public service announcement. It states that, “This is not a social message. This is a warning”. It is obvious that the filmmakers have talent, now they must gain more experience.

3 Knocks out of 5

Watch it here!